


The European League for those Capable of Sorcery

by FabulousHasi



Category: League of Legends, League of Legends RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fighting, Gen, League IRL, Lol Lore, Magic, Monsters, The Harrowing, some horror, there's action
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2020-05-15 21:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 48,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19304254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FabulousHasi/pseuds/FabulousHasi
Summary: Out of all the horror stories they used to tell them about magic, the one about the Harrowing was always the worst. It was the only one that could make them genuinely scared of the things that were out there – naturally only for a short time, until their youthful arrogance of being a wielder of magic kicked in. Then, nothing could scare them - not blue buffs or weird tree people, not even the dragons that threatened to burn their homes to the ground. They were convinced that with the right weapons they could defeat any threat.That was then. Now, they were older and there were a lot of things they could be scared about. The League had fallen and the other teams, once their allies, would now murder them without second thought. And now, there came the realization that some horror stories aren’t just stories.





	1. Volatile Spiderling

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided to try something a bit different in this fandom ^^  
> This will probably be a longer work (if I stick to it lol) and mostly center around Fnatic and G2, but basically all teams and most casters (from EU atleast) will make an appearance at some point.  
> I hope you enjoy and would greatly appreciate any feedback (gladly also criticism so I can improve!). I'll be looking to update weekly or bi-weekly and I think that's all ^^  
> Have a lovely day!

“Shh, relax, it’s not going to take much longer now.”

“Please… Why don’t you just kill me?”

Her eerily beautiful face hovered before him in the darkness, enchanting him again for a second. But then she opened her mouth into a wide smile, and he could see the needle-like fangs she had instead of normal teeth, and pure horror shot through him.

“Because it’s magic I need to live, and killing you won’t give me that. But keeping you alive will.”

“How?”

“You will see.” Her fingers caressed his face, almost lovingly, but they were cold to the touch. “Sleep now, my dear. When you wake, the end will be much closer.”

He obeyed willingly, and the little voice left in his mind that asked why, that screamed at him to break free from her sickly-sweet charm, was soon drowned out by deep, unnatural slumber.

He dreamed, of the sickening stench of hundreds of rotting corpses, of too many legs crawling across his body, of being trapped in a blanket the color of mold, and at times the horror was almost enough to wake him up, but her dark magic always pulled him back down.

He wasn’t sure if he was still dreaming, when he heard agitated voices, so different to her tranquil whispers.

“Is he alive? Oh fuck, what the fuck is this place?”

He blinked, and noticed that he was not sleeping anymore. Those were real people in front of him, staring at him with shock and horror on their faces. Why? Where was he again?

“Look, his eyes are open! Hey buddy, can you talk? What’s your name?” He tried to answer but only managed a hoarse croak. The two people in front of him exchanged a worried look. With his eyes growing accustomed to the dim light, he could see them clearer. They were two boys, barely older than him and with a look almost as frightened as he felt. His eyes trailed along the room, and… no, not room, he realized, suddenly. Cave. Clarity hit him, staying longer than a few seconds for the first time in days and he remembered everything.

“I’m Liam. You need to leave.” But he knew it was already too late.

“No, no, we need to get you out of here!” Replied the one closer to him, too loud and sure of himself. He pulled out a knife and began to tamper with the silken strands that were holding Liam in place. Wasn’t there something moving behind them, a body hanging from the ceiling, swaying lightly, ready to strike at any moment? The other boy turned around to follow his glance and froze.

“Marc.” There was a warning in his tone, and he raised his weapon but his partner didn’t pay attention, too focused on the task before him.

“Marc, you have to…” Something slender and sharp shot from the shadows, stopping him before he could finish the sentence. It stabbed him right in the chest and held him upright, even as the life force poured out of him and he grew limp. The other boy spun around, just to watch his companion drop to the ground.

“Jesper…” It was just a whisper, drowning out when an enormous body emerged from the shadows, furred and scabbed, a myriad of eyes glistening in the scarce light. It was her and he had no chance when the spider stabbed him, too, and Liam had to watch as she drained his life force. He could see it, glowing, a golden light that transferred from his heart to her and for a second her whole body was illuminated.

She transformed back to her almost human form, her legs neatly folded on her back, and, somehow, she was even more beautiful than before. The little wrinkles in the corners of her mouth he hadn’t even noticed before were eradicated now and her skin was glowing with the golden light. She sighed softly and turned to him with an enchanting smile, and were it not for the two dead bodies still visible on the ground, he would have been lost in her dark spell again.

“See, this is why you had to be here, Liam. Otherwise they would never have come. So, thank you.”

She smiled again, so sweetly, and it drew a relieved smile from his lips too, even though the little voice inside his head was screaming again. _She will kill you, she’s going to kill you, do something, please!_ Why did his chest hurt? He looked down, but couldn’t see what was wrong. Why was his sight now blurred? He swallowed, and tasted blood.

„Why…?“, he began, but his voice gave out. He couldn’t distinguish her in the room anymore, but he heard her chuckle.

„Oh. That would be my poison, I’m afraid. I’m truly sorry. But you dying so I can live is a trade I’m willing to take.“

He didn’t even hear the last sentence.


	2. Boomerang Blade

Rekkles stared at the coffee machine in defeat. He knew it was over. He had tried everything – giving it fresh water, fresh coffee beans and a lot of pleading looks – but it just wouldn’t budge. No matter his tactics, it refused to give him even one drop of coffee. He had even switched to threatening, but to no avail.

He wasn’t even sure why this was such a big deal. It was just coffee after all. He didn’t even like coffee that much. But this somehow felt personal, like the last in a long line of inconveniences that had occurred over the last weeks, just to spite him.

He noticed he was still standing motionlessly, staring at the coffee machine, when Hylissang entered the room a few minutes later. He took one look at Rekkles, at the coffee machine and immediately understood the situation. Without a word, he walked over to him, looked at him sternly and plugged the coffee machine into the electrical outlet.

Suddenly Rekkles felt very, very old. He just stared at the coffee machine for another few seconds and sighed deeply.

“What would I do without you?”, he mumbled and took a cup out of a kitchen cabinet.

Hyli shrugged and took a bite out of the apple in his hand. “Die, apparently.”

He then continued his way onto the bridge, leaving Rekkles to ponder his life choices alone. The dark thoughts were cut short by the pleasant scent of fresh coffee and when he came onto the bridge a few minutes after Hyli, he felt somewhat revitalized.

Bridge was a generous word for what was essentially an abandoned factory hall they had repurposed to fit their needs. It was two stories high, supported by dozens of columns littered throughout the room, with stairs at the far end that led to their bedrooms. On the right of the stairs was their training area, where Bwipo was currently flailing away at a dummy with a giant sword, the blade almost as wide and long as his body. Rekkles couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly use that clunky thing, but it seemed to work for Bwipo.

He just shrugged and walked over to Broxah, who was standing at a table and pressing his hands on the blue crystal embedded into it. The crystal was glowing from the magical energy Broxah was giving it and projecting a hologram in the air in front of him. It was a map of the surrounding city and by the way Broxah was frowning at it, it was showing something unpleasant.

„What is it?“, he asked, because he knew, it would take him a long time to find it himself. Broxah was just better at reading the map than him, something they learned a long time ago. Though he was proud to say that he could at least decipher imminent danger well enough – and a lot better than for example Bwipo could.

„It’s Shelly.“

„Again? I thought she wasn’t supposed to turn up again for like two days“, Rekkles recalled, frowning. But Broxah pointed to the map and there was a signal, pulsing in the distinct purple of the Rift Herald.

„You know, I would say that I miscalculated the schedule“, Broxah began with a skeptical look on his face, „but four times in a row? Something is just off with the spawn patterns of everything, but I can’t figure out what.“ He sighed, frustrated and took his hands of the crystal, which made the map disappear.

Usually, Broxah was extremely good at memorizing the patterns at which monsters and mythical creatures appeared, as well as reading the energy signatures magic gave off shortly before it materialized, which essentially let him predict where any magical activity would occur in the next week. But in the last few weeks, some monsters had turned up that he hadn’t seen coming, which of course bothered him immensely.

„Don’t blame yourself.“ Rekkles said to cut his stream of thought short. „If anything, it’s my fault that we don’t know what is going on, because I’ve been here longer than you, so I should have figured magic out by now.“ Broxah looked like he was going to object, but Rekkles cut him short. „We’ll just go deal with it and figure this out later.“

Broxah nodded, but still looked hesitant.

„Sure. Uh, listen... you got this, right?“

Rekkles frowned. Broxah wasn’t one to pass an opportunity for a fight. „Yeah. It’s just Shelly. Why?“

„I have an idea... there’s something I need to check on. It’s probably nothing, but I want to make sure.“ With the way he was chewing on his lower lip and looking extremely worried, it was probably more than nothing, but Rekkles decided not to press the matter now. A Rift Herald, while only a monster and thus less dangerous than other magicians, was still nothing to scoff at and needed his immediate attention. He made a mental note to address it later.

„Okay. We’re just going to meet back here later tonight then, right?“

Broxah nodded and Rekkles just gave him a pat on the shoulder, before turning around and walking to the training area, where Bwipo and Hyli were dancing around each other with their respective weapons. He leaned against the column on its border and watched them for a few seconds. Bwipo was taking jabs at Hyli, who kept narrowly dashing away from his blade and trying to get behind him to stab him in the back with his bone skewer. They both were laughing and insulting each other and Rekkles felt a slight smile on his face as he was watching them.

„Hey, Rekkles!“, Hyli wheezed between two dashes, when he had finally noticed him, „what’s up?“

„Shelly was missing us, so she turned up early, two blocks from here.“

„A job, exciting!“, Bwipo exclaimed as he whirled around and stabbed in front of him blindly, missing Hyli by miles.

„Come on, you dorks. Let’s get our weapons and get out there, before it destroys a building or something“, Rekkles said, pushing himself off the wall.

„I can just take this, no?“ Bwipo waved with his sword.

„Sure. But I think Hyli should rather take the door.“ Hyli didn’t object and they both started to walk towards their weapon’s storage on the other side of the stairs.

„I still think we should give them real names. Honestly, ‚take the door‘, that doesn’t sound great“, Bwipo shouted after them. Rekkles just shook his head, smiling, and went to look for his weapon on one of the giant storage racks. Well – not exactly weapon in this context.

Stored on the shelves were crystals the size of plums and of various colors, set in golden bracelets. You could snap the bracelet onto your forearm, and, if you had magical capabilities, channel them into the crystal to materialize its weapon. Every crystal produced a unique weapon with distinct capabilities, that you first had to learn about. They all had their quirks and unique strengths and weaknesses.

Rekkles had two weapons here that he could handle especially well – there had been others over the years but they had all been lost or destroyed or stolen by other teams. He didn’t care too much about it – you could only use one at a time anyway, right? And while some people were adamant about needing multiple weapons for every possible situation, he had never faced something he couldn’t handle with what he had. He grabbed the crystal on the shelf in front of him, and slipped it on before returning to Hyli. There was a rush of warmth along his arm when his own energy almost automatically bonded with that of the crystal, which lit up golden for a second as the lovely familiar cross blade that crystal held materialized in his grip.

Hyli was also already holding his door and together with Bwipo they left the bridge and turned towards where Broxah had located Shelly. Bwipo and Hyli were walking ahead, chatting happily, while Rekkles followed them, sometimes listening in, but mostly lost in his own thoughts.

It was a cold day, as you would expect in Germany in winter. More unusual for this time, however, was the fog everywhere that blocked out the sun, and limited their vision. Thinking about it, it had been weeks since Rekkles had last seen real sunlight that wasn’t filtered through clouds or fog like this. Weird. Of course, there was also something – someone - else he hadn’t seen in a few weeks.

Rekkles sighed, as his mind went back to that thought again, as it had so often lately. It felt like he couldn’t even go five minutes without noticing his absence and every time he had to go through the motions, replaying the same discussion with himself in his head over and over. _What if, what if, what if..._

„No“, he whispered, short and decisively, stopping himself just this once. He was about to fight a monster. Not the time to wallow in self-pity and regret.

He refocused and orientated himself. They were just now walking past the red city hall, which meant that they only had to cross a street and walk by a patch of park to get to the water fountain where they had located Shelly. Just when he finished that thought, he heard a feral scream from ahead – a sound that was definitely not human. They exchanged a look and picked up their pace, ignoring the red traffic light in front of them. Rekkles brain felt almost electrified and he was suddenly more alert than he had been for weeks.

While they were half-walking, half-running, he looked around to check for bystanders. It wasn’t a busy day, but Berlin was still a very big city, so there was some traffic and about a dozen tourists at the plaza, probably here to look at the very water fountain they were headed to. He hoped that the repellent effect of magic would be enough to keep them away.

Magic was technically not invisible to non-magicians, but people had to concentrate really hard to see it, otherwise their brains just wouldn’t register it. Concentrating enough to see magic required enormous effort and could make you dizzy or give you a headache, which lead to most people subconsciously just avoiding it. It was the same right now, where a middle-aged taxi driver’s gaze just slid off of him. They would still have to be careful though – if they called too much attention to themselves, the people around them would be able to get over their subconscious instinct to ignore them and things could get tricky.

He was theory-crafting the best ways to kill a Rift Herald as stealthily as possible, when Hyli tugged at his arm and nodded ahead.

„Look.“

„Holy shit.“ He stopped right in his tracks. „Has it gotten bigger?“

„You ask that every time.“

They had gotten past the trees and were now looking at an open square with a beautiful water fountain in its center. And right in front of it was the Rift Herald. And it was massive. Rekkles didn’t remember the monster, that essentially boiled down to ‚big crab‘, as being this intimidating, but it was three times as tall as him and making the giant fountain next to it look tiny. It let out another screech and he could feel the sound vibrate in his stomach.

„Okay guys, here’s the plan“, he began, only to notice that Bwipo wasn’t at his side anymore, but instead running straight at the crab, sword raised and determination in his body language. The Rift Herald noticed him and straightened up. It was foaming at the mouth, seemingly content to have attracted an enemy with its war cries. Hyli now also moved, running towards the Herald and shouting instructions and words of encouragement, while Bwipo ducked under the heavy swing of its front claw and stabbed at its foot with a shout of effort.

 _„Well. So much for stealth“_ , Rekkles murmured and sighed. _„Why can’t they ever not_ _try to kill everything they see?“_ He now also rushed towards the water fountain with his cross blade ready in his hand.

„I heard that! And a little help would be more appreciated!“, Bwipo shouted over the few meters distance between them. Of course, he had heard it – their magic allowed them to hear the others words in their thoughts whenever they needed. And Rekkles hadn’t tried to hide the sentiment.

Bwipo and Hyli were standing their ground in front of the fountain. The deep craters in the ground revealed how devastating a hit from the monster would be, but it seemed like the ice Hyli was shooting with his shield was making the Heralds movements just slow enough so they could outmaneuver it.

 _„I’m not really getting through her shell.“_ Bwipo pointed towards the tiny nick his sword had left in her foot. Rekkles quickly thought through all of his knowledge about Shelly and nodded.

 _„Distract it. I’m gonna get behind it.“_ He didn’t wait for an answer and started running to the right. He needed to reach the water fountain, so he could hit the pink, vulnerable eye the monster had on its back. He heard Bwipo curse and right after, a crash. He looked back and saw the monsters‘ claw interlocked with his blade, pushing against each other.

He had now reached the fountain and leapt onto the edge. The eye on the Heralds‘ back was right in front of him, but swaying heavily from side to side with the movements of the monster, that was still desperately slashing at Bwipo, which made it hard to aim at. Rekkles took a deep breath and tried to steady his heart rate. He spun his cross blade once and raised it, ready to throw, when the Herald whirled around without warning and hit him in the chest, hard. He flew backwards and crashed painfully into the statue in the middle of the fountain. The impact knocked the air from his lungs and the blade from his hands, and he let out a small pained groan.

 _„Rekkles? Are you okay?“_ , he heard the mildly panicked voice of Hyli in his head. His answer was cut off by another loud screech from Shelly, followed by a loud crack, as she crashed into the fountain with her head. It made the statues around him tremble and he scrambled away, fearing that they would crumble and fall on his head.

He saw that Hyli was right next to Bwipo, holding up his door as a shield from the monster, that was blind with rage by now, fuming and swinging at them over and over. Rekkles started to feel around for his blade on the bottom of the well, still not fully clear in the head.

„Take that, asshole!“, Bwipo shouted, right as Rekkles‘ fingers closed around a heavy leather grip. The Rift Herald screeched in pain. He dragged himself to his feet and turned towards the fight. Bwipo had apparently stabbed out one of the Rift Heralds‘ real eyes, leaving it seething and bleeding and stumbling around heavily. Rekkles could see the eye on its back, pink and bright, but he couldn’t aim for it through his dizziness and the heavy motion.

It was then that Hyli saw he was standing again, and they made short eye contact. He then slammed his door into the ground with such force that it created a fissure in the ground. It knocked the Rift Herald high into the air and stopped it from moving, long enough for Rekkles to concentrate, take aim, and throw.

His cross blade flew in a perfect curve and hit the pink eye in the exact moment Shelly fell on the ground again. It burst it right open, sputtering pink blood everywhere. The monster screamed in pain and stumbled, slowly collapsing on itself. It faded out of existence before it hit the ground and Rekkles caught his cross blade not without feeling a slight sting in his heart. But then he looked at the cracked ground and the crumbling statues behind him and knew that, with monsters, this was inevitable. It was just their job to make sure it happened to structures - not people.

His knees suddenly felt wobbly and he stumbled, but then Hyli was next to him, propping him up and leading him out of the fountain.

„Are you okay?“

„Yeah. Gonna get a hell of a headache though.“ They stopped in front of Bwipo, who somehow managed to look smug and contrite at the same time. Rekkles raised his eyebrows at him, but then decided not to say anything. He had other worries.

Looking around the plaza, there were only few people – but he could tell that a young couple to their right had noticed something. They weren’t giving them the looks of absolute horror that they would, if they actually had seen completely through the magic. But they were clearly seeing the rubble that the floor in front of well had been reduced to and, judging by the whispers between them, deciding if they should call the police. He sighed.

„We need to get out of here.“

Hyli followed his gaze and nodded. He grabbed his door and they bolted, leaving as quickly as possible without outright sprinting. Rekkles could feel his heart beating in his throat, but they were not stopped by furious calls or blaring police sirens, and he could breathe easily again, as soon as they were out of sight.

„Well“, Bwipo began, as they were walking back to their base, „that was quite fun.“ He had let his sword vanish and his arms were swinging at his sides. Hyli and Rekkles both turned their heads to stare at him in disbelief. There were a lot of snappy remarks on the tip of Rekkles‘ tongue but he decided to swallow them. He really didn’t want to argue.

„That was really unacceptable, actually“, Hyli told him off instead. But Bwipo just rolled his eyes.

„It’s just a fountain, Hyli. It can be rebuilt.“

Rekkles was desperately looking for a way to break up the ensuing argument before it actually occurred. Nothing interesting was near them, but the fog that he had noticed earlier had gotten even thicker, a dark grey soup that made him feel like he was walking through a giant wad of cotton.

„Jesus Christ“, he exclaimed loudly, cutting off Hyli, „fuck winter in Berlin, man.“ The others blinked at him, a little perplexed, before Bwipo gladly took the rescue he was offering him.

„But I don’t think this is normal for winter, right? Thought fog was more of an autumn thing?“

Rekkles shrugged. „Just another sign of the apocalypse, I guess.“

They all chuckled a little, and though Hyli’s raised eyebrows showed that this discussion was still to be had, he at least had avoided it for now.

For the remaining distance to their base, they kept chattering about nothing. Rekkles wasn’t really focused, worrying about a million other things at once – the couple at the well, the damage they did there, his aching ribs and the fact that the Rift Herald had appeared without them being able to predict it. Something like that shouldn’t be possible – because while not a lot of things with magic followed set rules, the ones that did exist were basically set in stone. They didn’t change, never had in the seven years that Rekkles knew about this world, and never even before that. One of them was that monsters appeared in the real world following a set pattern, always at the same times. Another was, that they always gave off energy signatures before they materialized. Neither had been true for the Rift Herald.

And maybe it was just Broxah being off with his readings, maybe it was all of them being a mess after the events a few weeks ago. But if it wasn’t… he didn’t even know.

They entered the main door to the bridge and went to put away their weapons, but Rekkles stopped at the sight of Broxah.

He was leaning against the table with the map in the middle of the room, arms crossed before his chest and the grimmest of looks on his face. Just then did Rekkles remember the thing that Broxah had wanted to check out – that had worried him enough to not come with them to fight a Rift Herald. By the looks of it, he wasn’t happy with his findings. Hyli and Bwipo had scurried away to their weapon racks, dying to get their unwieldy and heavy artifacts off of them, leaving Broxah and him alone.

„Broxah? What is it?“

He looked up, startled out of his thoughts by being addressed, and looked him once over. Rekkles realized the way he had to look – soaking wet, coated in rubble and blood and pink slime.

„Are you okay?“

„Uh... well, we’re alive and Shelly’s not, so that’s what counts“, Rekkles answered, exhausted, and it was closer to the truth than anything else. Broxah seemed to sense the tension behind that answer and decided not to ask further, for which Rekkles was immensely thankful. He wanted to go to put his cross blade away and get to the shower, but turned as he remembered something.

„What about your thing from earlier? Did you find anything?“

„Oh, uh, it’s not that urgent. You should take care of yourself first.“

„Are you sure?“

Broxah hesitated a little, but then nodded and forced a smile.

„Yeah, yeah. It can wait a little. Just... meet me in the attic later.“


	3. Clarity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, happy thursday :D  
> This chapter took a little longer than two weeks, but whatever - enjoy!

The apartment in Understed, a lovely small town in the most northern part of Denmark, was filled with relative peace. It was the middle of the night and the only sound floating through the open windows, together with the crisp winter night air, was the chirping of crickets.

The room itself was filled with chaos. Files and giant pictures piled up on the desks and floor, along with maps and hand-scribbled notes and the occasional half-eaten sandwich in between.

The chaos was evidence of hours of feverish work and research, of desperate tries to solve a puzzle. But at the moment, the man who had made that mess was sleeping peacefully in front of his computer, fallen asleep while trying to reach a person halfway across the world.

Half an hour later, the soft atmosphere was violently cut through by a loud and shrill ring tone, ringing from the computer.

The man startled awake, painfully hitting his legs on the underside of the table.

“God fucking damnit”, he cursed and scrambled around the table for his mouse, not fully awake and clear in the head yet. Who the hell was calling him in the middle of the night? He squinted at the bright screen in front of him.

_Incoming Call… Frosk_

The ring tone was beginning to hurt his head, when, finally, his fingers closed around his mouse and he accepted the call. The window loaded painfully slowly, but then it finally appeared, and he could see Froskurinn, sitting at her desk with one leg pulled up. The image was grainy and lagged, but that couldn’t water down her wide grin.

“Daniel! Hey, it’s good to see you!” The morning sun shone bright through the windows behind her.

Drakos ran his hands over his face and gave a tired smile back. “Yeah, you too.”

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic”, she said, half laughing.

“No, it’s just the middle of the night here, Frosk. You woke me up.”

“Oh, right, I didn’t think about that. I just called because I got your message.” Those words shook all sleepiness from him, as he remembered why he had even tried to reach her, and he sat up a little straighter. For the past few months, Drakos had spent a lot of his time monitoring police reports and newspaper articles from all over Europe, looking for occurances that could only be explained with magic. For example, buildings spontaneously catching fire were usually a clear indication of a dragon. Most of the time, the things he noticed were already taken care of by one of the teams, which had their own ways of detecting magic. But some days ago he had stumbled upon something in southern Portugal. Neither he nor the police could knew what it was and none of the teams seemed to have even noticed it. Which was why he had asked Frosk for help.

“You did? What…what do you say?”

She scooted closer to the desk and looked closely at her monitor “I mean, the pictures you sent me make it look like that whole thing was just people seriously mishandling a pissed off horse, right?”

He snorted at her nonchalant wording, the horrible images still very clearly in his mind, but nodded. “Yeah. That’s also what the police report suggested. But I kind of feel like that's bullshit. Do you have any other ideas?”

She scrunched up her nose, thinking. “I can only think of one magical being that would fit here. It’s called Hecarim and it’s a centaur, kind of, but more brutal and… I don’t know, horrifying. A bit like a rider of the apocalypse.”

“Well, that doesn‘t really sound great. Could that have been it?”, he asked and looked for something to take notes with.

“Well, not really. It’s basically impossible that it’s actually Hecarim.”

“What? But you just said that it could only have been Heca… the thing-y”, he said and froze in his movements.

“Hecarim. I only said that it’s the only magical being that fits the description. That doesn’t mean that that was it. Could this incident have nothing to do with magic at all and just be a horse losing it?”

“No, it was definitely magical. I had distinct readings at the scene.”

Frosk didn’t answer for a long time, so long that Drakos wasn’t sure if the connection had just given out.

“But why couldn’t it be this Hecarim?”, he asked tentatively. She sighed.

“Because in the old texts, Hecarim is only ever mentioned in relation to the Harrowing. And if the Harrowing was happening, you’d have other problems right now.”

“The Harrowing… That name seems familiar.”

“Of course, it does. It’s one of the casters’ favorite stories, we love to tell it over and over again”, she said with a wry smile.

“Well, it’s been a while since I listened to a caster. Do you mind bringing me up to speed?” He tried his best not to sound annoyed, but this conversation was turning frustrating. Why wasn’t she just being upfront with him?

“Sure. Um, okay. The Harrowing is basically the story of what happens when the corrupted spirits and magical beings of undeath cross the borders between worlds and come from their own to ours. All the ghosts roam the streets and steal human’s souls to turn them into ghosts like themselves. The exact things that happen vary from version to version, but a few things are consistent. Names like Hecarim and Mordekaiser always turn up and all versions agree that it will cost thousands of human lives.”

“That sounds even worse”, Drakos said after a while.

“It is. But honestly, I personally believe that the Harrowing is one of those stories in the old texts that will never happen.”

“Just hypothetically… How would you notice the Harrowing? If it ever happened?”

“You mean apart from all the humans dying?”

“I mean before that. How would you notice that it’s starting?”

“Chris and I actually theorized about this some time ago… Something like the Harrowing would probably require a severe destabilization of the magical realm, that allows all those dead and dark spirits to rise to power there. But the first thing you would notice in this realm would be a portal – like the usual ones monsters travel between realms with, only a lot bigger, because it needs to carry so many spirits at once. Like, a giant fucking portal. And after that, a significant influx in energy in this realm. Dark, corrupted energy to be exact… Daniel?” She stopped speaking as she noticed the look of alarm on his face.

“You say giant… But, like, how giant is that?”

“I don’t know. It was just a thought experiment. We didn’t do the math.”

“I have to send you something.”

He pulled one of the more recent files from his desktop and sent it to her. A few seconds later, her computer pinged, as she received the message. He kept rambling while she looked at the file, which contained readings of a massive portal turning up somewhere in the south of spain.

“I thought it was an elder dragon or maybe the Baron – even for that, it was a very big portal, but it was in a team’s territory, so I couldn’t really check it out in person. And when I didn’t hear about it again, I thought they had taken care of it. But with what you’re saying…”

He fell silent when Frosk didn’t answer, but just stared at her screen, face unmoving, as she looked at the file he had sent her. The silence seemed to stretch out infinitely while Drakos just waited for an answer, fidgeting nervously in his chair. Finally, Frosk looked up.

“You need to get your teams together.”

He wasn’t sure if he had heard right and let out a half-laugh.

“You’re joking, right?”

“Not at all. This is a lot too big for a dragon or even Nashor. And I don’t have any other explanation than that this acutally is the Harrowing.”

“But that doesn’t need to mean anything! You just said that you don’t believe in the Harrowing!”

“That was before I had evidence! Between these readings and you spotting Hecarim… Didn’t you also mention in your e-mail that a lot more people have gone missing these past few weeks?”

“Yeah, but…”

“No, no, no. You called me because you knew something was up with your readings and wanted a second opinion. This is it.”

Drakos chewed on his lip and tried to think. He had felt that something was wrong about this eportal and especially that weird horse, but just hadn’t been able to figure it out. Interpreting occurrences wasn’t what he was trained for – that was what he had always had Deficio and Vedius for - it was just noticing them that he was great at. So didn’t he have to trust Frosk’s judgement here? He sighed.

“Okay, fine, fair enough. I do believe you. Still, I can’t get the teams together.”

“Didn’t you listen when I said this was the apocalypse?“, she asked, bewildered.

“I did. But… The League fell. They’re all enemies now.”

“Daniel, this is so much bigger than a petty fight over a stupid dragon.”

“People died, Frosk.” It still hit close to home. That fateful day – or stupid fight, as Frosk called it – had cost him all of his friends, as the casters amongst them turned their backs on magic altogether and the magicians turned their backs on him. Frosk just raised her eyebrows.

“And a lot more fucking people will die if they can’t get their shit together. No single team can have any hope of even surviving the Harrowing.”

“But they don’t trust each other, let alone me. Every team is convinced that the others are out to get them. And neutrals aren’t even listened to since that ugly rumor that we somehow induced that fucking fight on purpose to play the teams off against each other. Even just getting them in a room together would be a fucking miracle.”

“Well, they will have to listen to me. I’m not going to sacrifice this world to a bunch of pubescent idiots’ egos.”


	4. Time in a bottle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saturday!
> 
> This one is more of a background/introspective chapter - enjoy :)

_“What is it?”_

_“It’s a part of magic, just like you and me.”_

Magic _– he mouthed the word silently, still so fascinated by this new reality that was being laid out before him._

_“But what does it do?”_

_“Well”, the older boy began and stretched his hand out towards the orange crystal that was floating in the air in front of them, “it’s called a team crystal. There’s ten of them in the League, one for each team, but many more exist around the world. This one is called Fnatic. And what it does…”_

_The younger boy watched, as strands of golden light began to grow between the crystal and the older ones fingertips, like twines of a plant._

_“It’s a catalyst. People like you and me can share their magic with a crystal and receive it back tenfold. And the more people bond with a crystal, the stronger it grows, creating a connection between those people and allowing them to share everything - their abilities, feelings and thoughts.”_

_“It’s like a heart”, the younger whispered. He blushed, when he got a questioning look for that, and tried to explain himself. “The way you describe it, it sounds like… I don’t know, like it connects everyone around them and makes them better together. Like, like the heart of the group.”_

_“That’s exactly what it is.” He confirmed and slowly drew his hand back, making the threads of light thin out and eventually break. Then, he gave the younger boy a calculating look. “Do you want to try?”_

_“What? Me?” His eyes widened and he took a step back, as if suddenly aware of how close he had gotten to the crystal._

_“Yeah. Listen, I know, you’re pretty young…”_

_“I’m fifteen!”_

_“Exactly.” It looked like the boy was going to protest further, but then decided against it. “You’re younger than most when they entered the League. But from what you’ve told me that you’ve seen… you’re already so aware of magic, that it could be dangerous for you to live in the normal world. I… I don’t want to promise you too much, or talk you into something you don’t want, but… If you entered the League, there would be no more reason to be afraid of magic. The people here can teach you how to deal with it and how to defeat the monsters that scare you so much right now. You would be surrounded by people that are like you and that wouldn’t think you’re insane for seeing things.”_

_The boy didn’t answer for a long time and just stared at the crystal, that hovered above them and emanated soothing waves of warm, orange light. It sounded like everything he had dreamed of – a place where he belonged – but wasn’t that too good to be true? He had stopped believing people when they promised him acceptance, because it always ended with a psychiatrist, who tried to cure his hallucinations. When he looked at the crystal, and felt the crazy energy it was radiating that was tingling his brain, he knew that this was different, that this guy was telling the truth. But still…_

_“When you bond with a crystal, you enter that team?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“What if the crystal doesn’t want me?”_

_“Don’t worry about that. Crystals are very selective in who they accept, that is true. They only take people whose personalities fit them and everyone else who has already bonded with them, so it makes a cohesive unit. But with you and Fnatic,” he paused, pondering something, and then broke into a huge smile, “I have an amazing feeling.”_

 

Rekkles tipped his head back and looked into the night sky over Berlin, breathing in its cold wintery air. It had been a while since he had last thought of that memory, of the moment he joined Fnatic and never looked back. He looked down, at the night owls wandering the city, dozens of meters below him, high atop one of the countless office buildings, and wondered how the hell that decision had led him here.

He was living in a city whose people he didn’t know and language he didn’t speak and whose history wasn’t his. And though he had lived here for seven years and it should be his home by now, suddenly his heart ached for his hometown, where everything was still comprehensible and straightforward, not as overwhelming as this vast, foreign place. He felt lost, more than ever before and his mind seemed to have picked out this memory just to mock him.

_With you and Fnatic, I have an amazing feeling._

“Well Peke”, he said quietly into the night, “it looks like you were wrong. I can’t even keep Fnatic alive.”

He closed his eyes and immediately his mind went back to the afternoon, when Broxah had shown him what he had found.

 _“What’s happening to it?”_ His own stupid question, asked, not because he didn’t know, but because he couldn’t accept it.

_“I’m not sure, actually.” Broxah’s furrowed brows and crossed arms, his heavy blinking. “But I think it might be dying.”_

_The crystal, Fnatic, hovering before him in the air, its light so weak and feeble compared to when he had first seen it all those years ago. It was a campfire that had shrunk down to the light of a single candle and it physically hurt him to see it that way._

_“Why?” He extended his hand towards it and a single strand of light separated from the crystal, and drifted towards him._

_“I think it’s not getting enough energy, so it’s kind of... shutting down. That would explain why I don’t get the readings from monsters appearing anymore. And it would… make sense.”_

He opened his eyes again and stared blankly into the night.

It wasn’t the first time there were only four people with Fnatic. People had left them – him – for as long as he could remember, but somehow, someone new had always appeared and clicked with them, replacing, to an extent, what was missing.

The team crystal needed energy to survive, energy that only its members could give it, and if there weren’t enough of them, it starved. They had been lucky, he knew that now, lucky that they had never gone long as only four. Until now.

He had been arrogant to ignore that fact – to push it so deep into his subconscious that he was surprised when it actually became a problem. He had been too confident in them, too convinced that they were the strongest version of the team they had ever been, that the four of them would all have enough energy to compensate.

Arrogant, overconfident, stupid.

This was the way teams died. He knew, because it had happened countless times before – to Moscow Five, to CLG EU, to Origen.

Origen. Was this the final way he was supposed to follow in Peke’s footsteps, watching his team die, the one he had captained and nurtured for years, because G2 had stolen its members? It would fit destiny’s way with him, of always saving its cruelest joke until last.

If he wanted to save them, he had to find a new member, but his hopes for that happening were low. Magic users weren’t exactly common – he wouldn’t even bet that there was one in the whole of Berlin. And even if there was, Fnatic wouldn’t just bond with anyone. It was quite picky with the type of magic it wanted, with how the personality had to fit the others. And then that potential magic user also had to want to join them.

It had been easier when the League still existed, spanning the entire continent, and they worked together to find people with magic. Back when the teams worked and lived together and it wasn’t uncommon for someone to notice another teams‘ crystal calling out to them. Switching teams wasn’t as much of a betrayal back then, because they were all basically working together anyway – Rekkles had done it himself once, in the closest thing to a teenage rebellion he had ever had, but quickly come back. To him, Fnatic’s energy just felt so comfortable - like their magic was made out of the same fabric and he just belonged with it.

In retrospect, everything back then seemed so much easier than now, every decision with less implications for team politics and crystal health. Was that actually true, if he was honest to himself? Maybe he was being unfair.

Rekkles sighed and ran his hands through his hair, when he noticed that one of the people down on the ground hadn’t moved in a long time. The guy just stood there – and seemed to be staring up at him.

Rekkles looked around himself and noticed that he was very visible in the moon’s light. The guy on the ground grabbed something from his pocket and Rekkles‘ thoughts were racing, looking for a way to disappear, when his phone rang.

His ring tone sounded into the night once, twice, before he fumbled his phone from his pocket with numb fingers.

„Hello?“

A familiar voice answered. „So... This might be a weird question, but is that by any chance you up there?“


	5. Crowstorm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Sunday!
> 
> Finally a G2-chapter - enjoy! :)

“I’m bored.”

Caps could feel the burning stares from both his sides before he even finished.

“Are you kidding me?” Miky asked, surprised and maybe a little offended.

“It’s an _amusement park_ , Caps”, Jankos added before Caps could say anything. “How could you be bored?”

“It has no magic, so what is even the point?”, Caps grumbled as he stared gloomily at the colorful rollercoasters and crowds of happy people they were passing. He could feel the other two exchange an amused look behind his back.

“There’s more to life than just magic, you know”, Miky said while trying to ruffle through his hair. Caps avoided him by diving under his hand.

“Yeah. But it’s _boring_.”

“Okay, no.” Jankos linked arms with him, leaving him with no room to avoid them. “If you’re bored, we have to change that immediately. Where’s Luka?”

Miky answered and pointed somewhere in front of them but Caps wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy being grumpy as the others pulled him along with them. It wasn’t like he despised the amusement park. But the thing was, he could think of so many things that were a lot more fun than being here and that didn’t involve as many strangers and as much standing in line. Hunting monsters for example. Or training with Perkz – _no, Luka_ – who had already taught him surprisingly much about his favorite weapons. But no, he was stuck here and wasn’t even allowed to complain about it.

„Now, why the long face?“ Caps focused and saw Perkz and Wunder standing in front of him, both with the dirtiest grins on their faces, as Jankos had probably just told them about him complaining and they were getting ready to heavily troll him. Because while Caps hadn’t been with G2 for that long yet, he already understood that trolling each other was an important part of their daily routine.

„I heard that you were bored“, Perkz continued and for some reason Caps only now noticed the enormous rollercoaster that was towering over all of them. He remembered that the others had told him about this particular one as being famous for being the highest and fastest in all of Europe, and it seemed to be true, judging by the facial color of the people exiting the ride.

„Oh, you know, I’m good, suddenly“, he murmured unconvincingly, which just made his teammates laugh.

„Come on, it’s not that bad. It’s actually kind of fun“, Wunder said and while Caps didn’t think that that was a particularly inviting description of anything, he reluctantly let himself be pulled along. It was only when they had entered the line and people behind them were blocking his exit path, that he noticed that only Jankos had followed them. He turned around and stared at Perkz and Miky, who could barely contain their laughter with a stunned expression.

„You’re not coming?“, he called.

„We’re not suicidal“, Miky answered casually.

„Yeah“, Perkz added, „we’re gonna go eat some donuts. Have fun on your ride!“

They turned around and were lost in the crowd before he could say anything and as the line started to move again, people were pushing him forward, and he had to turn back around. _Well,_ he thought, when the line kept moving and they passed the giant doors of the tower and entered relative darkness, _I’m definitely not bored anymore._

Wunder and Jankos in front of him were talking loudly and cheerily, but he was distracted by the warning sign next to them.

**_Warning!_ ** _Do not ride if you are pregnant, elderly or have a heart disease! Serious risk of cardiac arrest!_

“Great”, he muttered to himself and decided to look away before he could read further and let his eyes wander across the room. The line cut diagonally through it, with the unused room next to it filled with decorations that were apparently supposed to represent props from the backstage of a theatre production. Caps rested his arms on the handrail that bordered the waiting line and stared at the scenery, carefully arranged to look like chaos.

There were wooden chests of various sizes sprinkled with dolls, dresses and plastic food, as well as a rocking chair with a scarecrow sitting in it, a scythe in its hand. In the corner there was a giant robot made from cardboard, halfway covered by a white sheet with fake dust on it. It reminded Caps of the giant robot he once fought, back with Fnatic, that could grab people and… _wait._

_That scarecrow had just moved._

Caps straightened up and stared in horror at the scarecrow that was now unmistakably getting up from its chair. Its movements were slow and stiff and no one but Caps seemed to notice them. He blindly reached to his side and tried to grab his teammates‘ arm, while not daring to avert his gaze.

„Jankos“, he whispered, „Jankos, you have to...“ The next words got stuck in his throat, because the scarecrow turned its head and stared him directly in the eye. For a moment, nothing happened. And then the roof exploded.

People next to him started screaming in terror. He was pushed away from Jankos and Wunder and shoved painfully into the handrail behind him by people trying to run to either exit. From above came deafening caws as a myriad of giant, black crows descended onto the crowd, picking at hands and eyes and anything that was not safe. The scarecrow came back into his vision, laughing maniacally with a voice that scraped along his spine like a knife. He could now see its very real and sharp teeth and the green fire burning where its eyes were supposed to be. Before he could do anything, one of the giant crows lunged at him, its claws aiming directly for his eyes. He attempted to raise his arms to shield himself, but before the crow reached him, it was knocked out of the air and cut it in half. It was Jankos who had appeared next to him, two huge axes in his hands and a murderous look in his eyes.

„Get your weapon out“, he commanded while exploding another crow.

„I don’t have any!“

„What do you _mean_ , you don’t have any?“, Jankos hissed.

„Miky told me to leave them at home, he told me to, to enjoy it here, I...“ Caps was close to a full-blown panic now. They were under attack and he was defenseless. His brain started to cycle through all his training sessions, to the hundreds of times Rekkles had told him to not let this happen, because if you had a weapon, you at least had a chance.

 _„Luka, we need help“_ , Jankos said and Caps could hear it twice, once in person and then in his mind, channeled over their linked magic. He could only pray that Perkz would hear it too. By now, most people were gone and the crows circled only around Jankos and himself, and Wunder a few meters from them, who was swirling around and hacking dozens of them out of the air with levitating blades. Yet they didn’t seem to get less, hovering in the air around them and screeching so loudly that Caps was getting a headache. He turned to look at the scarecrow, which had its arms raised and wind whirling around it, knocking over all the props in its vicinity. It was staring straight at Caps and when their eyes met, it started to speak. He wasn’t sure how he could hear it over all the noise, but it was as clear as if it was standing right next to him, whispering in his ear.

„You can see me. You can kill my crows. Who are you?“

Jankos and Wunder paused and turned to the scarecrow, as they had heard it too. It started to walk towards them, Caps clearly in its focus, and cut through the metal of the handrail with its scythe as if it were nothing. It was close enough for Caps to be seized by the whirling wind around it and he gagged at the smell of rotten hay. It swung its weapon at him and he desperately scrambled backwards, avoiding the tip by a hair. Jankos caught the second swing with the handle of his axe but before he could strike out with his other hand, three crows flew at his head, claws stretched out, and he had to desist to defend himself. Caps saw Wunder, a few meters away, desperately trying to get to them, but the crows were too many to cut through.

The scarecrow lifted its scythe a third time.

„Who are you?“, it demanded again and let the blade crash down. Caps jumped back and it split the ground in two instead of him, but now he had the wall in his back and nowhere to go. The scarecrow extended its arm and the thought of how anticlimactic this was crossed Caps‘ mind, of how he was going to die the first time he was facing something dangerous with his new team. But then a movement to his left distracted both him and the scarecrow and they turned around simultaneously.

„The better question would be: who the fuck are you?“

The scarecrow let out an angry screech and raised its arm to point at Perkz, who had appeared at the entrance of the room, two glowing guns in his hands and murder in his eyes. Movement came into the storm of crows, as they let go of Jankos and Wunder to lunge at Perkz as one swarm, a deadly arrow of claws and beaks. He didn’t even bat an eye, as his shots made of light exploded crow after crow into nothing but feathers with mechanical precision. It was a mesmerizing sight, the darkness swallowing the white hot fire and then bursting outward, when only a couple of crows remained. Perkz didn’t stop firing though, steadily walking forward while the light now hit the scarecrow directly in the chest. It hissed in pain and tried to dodge out of the light, but there was no way out. But then, a stray crow flew towards Perkz‘ head and he had to stop the stream of bullets for a second to swat it away. The scarecrow used that moment of diversion to spin around and vanish, screeching triumphantly, and left nothing behind but the feathers of its followers and the chaos they had caused. They all stood still for a few seconds, not fully comprehending what had happened. Then, Perkz turned to Caps.

„Are you okay?“

Caps just nodded, not capable of forming a full sentence yet. „What was that?“

„Don’t know.“ Perkz shook his head and inspected a feather he had picked up from the floor. Caps looked around the room and tried to fathom the damage done. The roof was completely destroyed, with countless holes from where birds had forced their way inside – birds, whose remains now littered the floor in the form of black, gooey feathers. The decoration that this all had started with was shattered, with only a few pieces still intact. And then there was the destruction the monster had caused in the handrail and floor.

The rest of the team had now joined them, Miky now also arriving from outside. Wunder and Jankos were both bleeding out of several small cuts and holes picked by the bird beaks. As was Caps, as he now noticed when he ran his fingers through his hair and they came away bloody.

„We should leave“, Miky said after a few moments of silence, „before they decide to come back and investigate what the fuck happened here.“

„Well“, Wunder said, clearly pissed off, „I would also like to know what the fuck happened here.“

„One thing after another. We have to get out of here. And my stuff to heal you is also at home. So, let’s go.“ Miky decided and started to herd them toward the exit, like a true mother hen.

„You’re just trying to compensate for fucking up by telling Caps not to bring a weapon“, Jankos accused him. „I will murder you for that, by the way.“

„I mean, if I had known that we would be attacked by a fucking demon-scarecrow today, I would probably not have told him that.“ They kept bickering along the way, but Caps had noticed that Perkz was not following the rest of the team and stopped.

„You coming?“

Perkz looked up from the feather in his hand and for a second there was something in his expression, which Caps couldn’t quite identify. But then the moment passed and he smiled reassuringly and seemed just normal.

„Yeah. Let’s go.“


	6. Transcendent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday!
> 
> One day late, but I hope you still enjoy the chapter :)  
> As a quick heads-up: The idea and most of the chapters right I'm posting right now were developed in spring, so some of the players aren't even in the LEC anymore, but I decided to keep them because it made sense and because I like them :D

Rekkles‘ ringtone sounded into the night once, twice, before he fumbled his phone from his pocket with numb fingers.

“Hello?”

“So… this might be a weird question, but is that by any chance you up there?”

Rekkles couldn’t believe it. How was that possible? How did he…

“Fabian?”

“Uh, yes”, was the tentative answer and now he was waving up to him. And now, at second glance, didn’t he also recognize him? His height, his hair, his posture…

“Is that actually you?”

“Well… yeah. Surprise?”

“How did you know it was me?”

“I know only one person with the weird ass habit of climbing onto roofs when he’s sad.”

It was actually him. It was actually Febiven, Fabian, his best friend, who had disappeared one year ago, and who he had been convinced he would never see again. Rekkles felt a smile creep onto his face. Holy shit, he had missed him.

“I’m gonna be the bigger person and not flame you back for your weird habits.”

A snort on the other end of the line and then a short silence.

“What are you doing here?”, Rekkles asked, coming down from his first high feeling of surprise and happiness, back into the harsh reality that was territories and wars.

“Long story, kinda. Can I come up?”

He was right to feel the awkwardness of this phone call, where they could literally see each other, fifty meters apart. Still, Rekkles hesitated. He was painfully aware that he _wanted_ to trust him and that, if he actually forced himself to think about it, he would find this whole thing weird – Febiven appearing out of thin air, and randomly finding him here, on the day he found out Fnatic was dying, after not being seen or heard of for years. _If_ he thought about it, that was.

“Yeah.“

„See you in a minute then.”

He hung up and watched, as Febiven, so tiny down below on the ground, began to glow in a purple light and rise into the air. His heart was beating like crazy the whole time Febiven was flying up to him. Was it out of fear that he made a mistake, or happiness that he would see his friend again? It surely wasn’t because of an idea blooming in the back of his head, still not fully formed, so outrageous that he didn’t even dare to properly formulate it.

But now, there he was, floating in the air right in front of him, a little taller and a lot more grown-up – the thought of _holy shit, we were such babies_ hit him – and still so wonderfully familiar. He looked just as overwhelmed as Rekkles felt and for a moment neither of them could say anything.

“You’re actually back”, Rekkles mumbled and half-grinned. „How was the world?“

„Oh, you know. Interesting. There’s some great mountains in Australia. Very pretty. Wouldn’t ever recommend going to America though. Everyone over there is an idiot. The food is great, but it really doesn’t make up.“

Rekkles remembered how excited Fabian had been, one years ago, when he told him how he was leaving magic behind to travel the world and see everything, and how he was gonna find a new home in the U.S. and it would be great.

„Sorry“, he said, and he meant it. Febiven shook his head and sunk onto the roof next to him.

„Don’t be. Even if it had been great, my home will always be here. This is where my family is, and my friends, and it... just fits me better here. But I wouldn’t have found out if I hadn’t gone, so it basically was an absolute win anyway.“

„That’s great“, Rekkles said and they chuckled at how insincere in sounded. „No, I mean it. It’s great you found out. And it’s great you’re back.“

Febiven nodded towards him. „What about you? Why are you up here?“

„What do you mean?“

„Well, you used to only go up here when you needed to get away from shit. Like, when everything else sucked really badly. I don’t think that has changed, right?“

Rekkles exhaled and looked away. „No, it hasn’t.“

„Well? You can tell me.“

Rekkles knew that that wasn’t really true. He wasn’t his teammate anymore, or even his friend. He had been gone for one year, and so much had changed since then, they barely were the same people anymore. But right now, he couldn’t feel the distance. Right now, it felt just like back then, when he used to come up here and Febiven would show up every single time without fail, and they would talk, and suddenly his heart ached so badly for that time that he couldn’t breathe for a second.

And so he told him everything.

How everything had been going great for a while now, and then Bwipo appeared, and everything was going even better. How they felt unstoppable, defeating dragons like it was nothing and were even crafting plans to cover areas outside of Europe.

How that stopped soon, when the League imploded, and, basically over night, all order and coordination was lost, teams were fighting and breaking away, some even tearing apart over it. How they managed to stabilize quite well, staying here and building a territory and system from the ground up, but that then also got into turmoil, when Soaz got injured in a fight and then Bwipo and him didn’t get along any longer and a lot of bad stuff happened and bad things were said and Soaz gave them an ultimatum; Bwipo or him.

How he had chosen Bwipo, because he felt like he was innocent in all the drama and like he deserved a chance and because he knew that Paul had always been a free spirit and was bound to leave them sooner or later, because that was just how he was.

How Soaz had left, not really in bad blood, but a mutual agreement that it was better for them all.

How they had managed after that, notably weaker, but still fine – their grand plans were gone, but that wasn’t too bad. They maintained. It was fine.

How, then, a few weeks after Soaz left, they woke up one morning to find Caps gone. No words said, nothing, just gone. How they had panicked, thinking God knows what had happened to him, until Broxah found the note, left on his bed, a goodbye letter.

How they couldn’t believe it and went to G2 and demanded him back, and how they laughed in their faces, while Caps hid behind them, not even able to look them in the eyes.

How that broke something between them, the trust they had had, and how suddenly nothing worked, and they weren’t on the same page and things that used to be so easy were suddenly huge tasks, and their base seemed so empty and Rekkles was so tired.

And finally, how Fnatic was dying and it felt like his fault; how Fnatic was dying and there was nothing he could do.

Talking about it felt like draining a festering wound he had fostered over weeks. Every word was poison leaving his body, and after he had ended, he felt worlds lighter.

Febiven was silent for a few seconds before answering.

„Well, it’s obvious what you need to do, right? You need to find a new member.“

Rekkles laughed drily. „Oh, who are we kidding, Febi?“

„What? That’s what we always do.“

„You have no idea how much everything has changed since you left. The League fell, the teams are now in what is basically open war. Leaving Berlin would be suicide for me.“

Febiven wasn’t impressed.

„There’s always options.“

That sentence brought the idea, that outrageous idea, that had been slumbering in his mind since the beginning of their conversation, to life and suddenly it hung heavily between them. Rekkles didn’t know whether, or even how to say it.

„Febi...“, he started, but Febiven spoke in the same second.

„Martin, there’s something I need to tell you.“

It sounded so heavy-hearted, like it was a truly terrible secret, that it made Rekkles fall silent immediately.

„I... I’ve actually been back for a few weeks already. Learned about the fall of the League and the whole territory thing the hard way, when I landed in Misfits‘ territory. They were this close to killing me, but turned pretty chill as soon as I managed to explain that I wasn’t there to attack or invade them or whatever, but just genuinely didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. The first one to believe me was actually, well, um... Paul. Yeah, he’s... kinda, with them now.“

Rekkles raised his eyebrows and tried to figure out if he was surprised by that. Not really, it turned out – in his time with Fnatic, Soaz had always said how much he missed France.

„So, he convinced the others to believe me and explained everything to me, brought me up to speed, you know. He also... well.“ He rubbed the back of his nose embarrassedly. „He was also the one who convinced me to join Misfits.“

He looked like he expected Rekkles to lash out at him now, but he wasn’t feeling anger, just bitter disappointment, as his idea popped right before his eyes, like a balloon that flew too high.

It had been grasping at straws, he knew that, but getting Febiven to fill Caps‘ void had somehow felt like the perfect solution, and just like that, it was taken from him.

„You shouldn’t be here then, should you?“ Quiet and short, like bullets, because he couldn’t deal with this right now.

„Oh, come on. Does it really have to be like that?“

„How delusional are you? You’re from a hostile team, basically invading our territory. You know I should kill you now, right?“

„Please, Martin, I don’t want us to hate each other.“

Rekkles felt something hot rise up in his chest, scorching and devouring all the happiness and relief he had felt earlier. „What the hell were you even thinking coming here? That we would make up and be great friends again and everything is sunshine and sparkles?“

„No, there was actually something important I needed...“

“I can’t…” Rekkles hesitated and gritted his teeth, searching for the right words, but then just gave up and shook his head. “Just don’t.”

Febiven stared at him and frowned, like there was a lot more he had to say about this whole situation, but in the end he just sighed and got up.

„Okay. Just... I don’t believe you when you say there’s no other way. And I promise to find one out of this whole mess.“

He didn’t wait for an answer before jumping from the roof and flying away. Rekkles stared after him until he got lost in the darkness of the night sky, silently contemplating his last words. The hotness in his chest had cooled off, leaving behind a whole mess of resentment and regret. He couldn't stop the thought of _what if he was right?_  What if this war was just blown out of proportion and could be fixed with nothing more than a little determination? But then he remembered that these were teams like G2, and Splyce, and Vitality, that people had died before and during this, and that he wasn't even sure if he himself was willing to make peace with them just like that. He sighed, shook his head, and got up. This was no time for dreaming – he had much more real problems to fix.

He channeled his weapon and it sent a blue flash into the night, as it materialized – a staff that held the power of the wind. Technically, it belonged to Hyli, but he really hated it and thus never complained when Rekkles borrowed it. And by now, Rekkles was convinced that he could handle it at least as well, if not better, than Hyli himself, though he would never say that loud. He prepared himself to use the staff to gently float down the side of the building.

But before he could lift off, a terribly loud noise in his head brought him to his knees, clutching at his ears. It was a dragon’s scream, and it sounded the way it did when a dragon was dying. It felt like his head was bursting, with how deafeningly loud it was and his ears rang, even after it had ended. He didn’t even have time to stabilize, and get back on his feet, before a second noise sounded in his head. It was a single word, spoken by an unfamiliar voice, as crisp as if whispered right into his ear, and it sent shivers down his spine.

_“Help.”_


	7. Monsoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Sunday!
> 
> This chapter is a bit longer, because it's two parts that I didn't want to separate - enjoy!

The smell was the first thing that hit Broxah. When his teleport finished, the stench of blood and decay immediately wavered over him, and caused his eyes to water. Then the orange light of his magic cleared from his vision, and the sight hit him too. He froze.

„What on earth?“

He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know what had happened – one minute he was at the base, minding his own business, when he suddenly heard a dragon and a voice asking for help – a feeling of unknown magic in his head - and then his teleport had channeled, on its own, and taken him here. Something like that had never happened before.

The empty field in front of him was covered knee-high by thick black fog, only disrupted by deep tears in the ground, like giant claws had been dragged across it. There was an eerie silence over the scene, that seemed to have no end. It was so cold that Broxah felt himself starting to shiver.

He turned to his side, and saw Hyli and Bwipo, a few meters apart, who looked just as confused and spooked as he felt. He was about to ask if they knew what was going on, when between them, another orange light beam shot from the sky, and after a few seconds revealed Rekkles, who looked around with widened eyes.

“What the fuck?”

“I was just about to ask that. Did you all hear that… thing?”

They all nodded, but Hyli gave Rekkles a critical look. “Where were you?”

“Away. Doesn’t matter. Where are we?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know unintentionally teleporting was possible”, Broxah said and Rekkles shook his head.

“It isn’t. At least it has never been.”

Bwipo was the first to move again, stirring up the black fog with his steps.

„It seems like something pulled us here, no? That cry for help maybe? But there’s nothing here“, he said, confused.

Broxah felt uneasiness creep up with every second. This scene was unlike anything he had ever seen before – a black, reeking sea of nothingness, that stretched out endlessly, and wavered around his ankles like it was trying to grab him as he walked through it. The few flowers and patches of grass that stuck out of the fog were colorless and dying.

He swallowed and tried to ignore the feeling of dread as the fog circled around his feet. But there was more to it. He didn’t know where they were, but it was definitely not in their territory, which meant that every second spent here increased their risk of being found and an ensuing fight.

“We should just leave.”

“No! We have to find out what happened here”, Hyli protested and looked around them. „Rekkles, can you try to blow the fog away, so we can see?“

“I mean, I can try”, Rekkles said with a skeptical look at the fog, but raised his staff regardless. It glowed in a blue light and pushed out a gust of wind. Broxah could feel the breeze brushing over him. It pushed the fog outwards, and replaced the horrible stench of death with a pleasant, fresh smell. Broxah felt like he could breathe better, now that the dark shadows weren’t circling him as closely anymore, and he could see farther than a few meters. But there was nothing around them – just dead grass, ripped into patches by the few giant claw marks. When he squinted, he saw something in the distance, at the edge of the clear ring Rekkles had created. Bwipo had also spotted it and was moving there, and Broxah followed suit. Hyli and Rekkles were right behind them.

When they got closer, he could see that the few undefined piles he had seen from afar were actually people – four people that lay on the ground, not moving. He picked up his pace, but stopped when he got close enough to see why they weren’t moving.

“Oh my god”, he exclaimed. _Now it makes sense that the fog smelled like blood,_ was his first thought, and hated himself for it.

“Cover me”, Bwipo said, who was already kneeling next to the closest of the four people, looking for a pulse, but Broxah knew that was pointless. He was glad for the excuse to turn away, couldn’t stand the sight of crushed torsos and distorted limbs anymore. He raised his spear, and stared into the fog around them, ready to protect his team from any threat jumping out at them.

 _“They’re dead”,_ Bwipo said, and Broxah could hear it in his head. He gritted his teeth and squared his shoulders. Was the thing that had done that still here, lurking just at the edge of their vision? But it didn’t feel like it. The fog around them was creepy and sticky and disgusting, but Broxah was almost sure that there were no other threats hiding in it.

“Do we know any of them?”, Hyli asked. Broxah hadn’t focused on their faces, but he didn’t want to turn back around. Just when he was trying to muster his courage, he saw Rekkles, who stood in front of him, pale rapidly.

“That’s not…”, he whispered and walked past Broxah, eyes transfixed on one of the bodies. Broxah followed him with his eyes, but was distracted by something in the fog, just a few meters from them.

“That’s Werlyb. How…?”, Rekkles said, but Broxah just furrowed his brows at the thing he had noticed. It was a difference in the endless sameness of the black fog, where it seemed to be flowing with more direction, revolving around something in its center. He cautiously moved towards it, away from his team.

 _“What? Who is Werlyb?”_ Broxah was now so far away that he could only understand them clearly in his head, and he thought he could recognize what the thing in the fog was now.

_“He was with Fnatic once. But he left… to go back to Spain I think. Why would he be here?”_

_“Well, for all we know, we could be in Spain.”_

Broxah wasn’t listening anymore, because now he saw that he had seen right.

There was another person.

He fell to his knees next to the boy and shushed the fog away. It obeyed, clearing a ring around them, but Broxah didn’t have time to waste to think about that, because this guy was still alive. Broxah could see the small rises and falls of his chest with each breath, ever so faint, but unmistakably there.

He also had a massive wound on the shoulder, that almost looked like a dent, and his eyes were closed, but Broxah could feel his pulse.

_„Guys. There’s someone else here, and he’s alive.”_

_“What?”,_ he heard three times and felt the others whirl around towards him. He concentrated and tried to find out if the guy had any other injuries. Briefly, he could feel their minds brush against each other and the feeling of the unfamiliar magic that had brought them here was back.

 _“I think he’s the one who called us for help”_ , he sent and turned around briefly to look at the others.

“We have to get him to safety. To our base, so we can heal him”, Rekkles said, who was now kneeling on the other side of the boy, and looking at his crushed shoulder. Broxah followed his gaze and noticed the eyes of the boy were now open.

„You’re awake!“ Broxah was shocked, but tried to speak as softly as possible. The boy didn’t look fully conscious, his eyes dazed with pain and shock, but it was clear that he was utterly terrified. Rekkles grabbed his wrist.

„Hey, look at me. Can you tell me who did that?“

The look of panic in the boys‘ eyes got worse when he looked at them. His breathing quickened and he tried to move away from them, whimpering as the movement pulled at his injury. Rekkles seemingly didn’t notice and just kept talking.

„Listen, we can stop the monster, if you...“

 _„Rekkles, stop.“_ He looked up, not understanding what Broxah was trying to say. _„He knows who we are.“_ The boy looked at them, and saw a hostile team, here to kill him.

„Hey, my friend, we’re not going to hurt you, I promise. We’re not your enemies, we’re on your side“, said Broxah as calmly and gently as possible and saw the panic slowly disappear from the boy’s face. He whispered something, so quietly that Broxah couldn’t understand.

„We’re the help you called.“

There was another tense moment, before he received the slightest nod of the head as an answer, and the boy slid back into unconsciousness. Broxah looked up and met Rekkles‘ gaze for a second, before Rekkles turned away and pressed his lips together.

„We have to get him to safety immediately“, Broxah said.

“What about… all this? Don’t we need to find out what happened?”, Hyli asked, and gestured towards the fog and the bodies. He looked just as disturbed as Broxah felt.

He hesitated. “I don’t… I don’t know.“

„Saving lives has priority“, Rekkles said.

„And maybe he can tell us more about what the fuck happened here.” Bwipo added, and Broxah nodded slowly. Whatever had done this had to be an insanely powerful monster, something he didn’t want to face without the proper preparation. And if they could save one person, especially one that had subverted yet another rule of magic for them, they had to give everything to do so.

He scooped the boy up as carefully as possible. He felt fragile and tiny in his arms, barely more than a skeleton.

“I’ll see you at the base”, he murmured to the others, and they all nodded, and prepared to teleport. Before he channeled his magic, Broxah looked over the field one more time, and felt his heart contract. This was different than any magic that had come before it. It felt evil, with its darkness, and stench, and brutality. It scared him.

When he channeled his teleport, and the orange light engulfed him and the boy he held, he couldn’t help but feel like the black fog was still clinging to them, sticky and disgusting, and following them right into the heart of Berlin.

 

 

 

_Logbook entry 6.12: Teleports         Peke_

_Today, nothing really interesting happened – just some training and a strategy discussion for the spawn of the new weapon tomorrow (which was really boring). But I want to make these entries a habit, so I decided to write about something more general today – teleporting, because I actually think it’s super cool._

_It was Paul who found out that you can use your innate magic to teleport. He says it was when he heard Lauri scream for help and just acted on instinct, but I think it’s more likely that he was too lazy to actually walk to the fridge or something. But since then, we have been experimenting with it and found out a lot of cool things about it. It works about the same as healing or setting things on fire, where you just concentrate really hard on your magic and what you want to do and the rest kind of happens on its own. The closer the place you’re teleporting to is and the better you know it, the less time and energy you have to use to get there. You also have to visualize it almost perfectly – seeing yourself, exactly where you want to end up – which means that teleporting somewhere you haven’t been before can become kind of awkward. We tried to teleport to the Arc de Triomphe, because Paul had kept going on about Paris since we had known each other, and I almost died, because I landed on a street I didn’t know was there. So, yeah, gonna be more careful about that._

_We are still experimenting with the distance, but I’m pretty convinced that if your crystal is strong enough and you have enough innate magic, you could basically travel around the whole world. Though, thinking about Paris, maybe you should take a plane there and only teleport back home. Still – how fucking cool is that?_

_I’m gonna write an update to this once we find out more about this, but this just makes me so happy already. There’s so much we can learn about magic and I feel like there’s something new to discover every day, whether it’s a way to use our own magic or something a weapon can do that no one thought of before. There is a whole world of magic out there and it is ours to conquer._

 

Broxah closed the window on his tablet and rubbed his burning eyes. A look out of the window confirmed what he had thought – he had been reading for hours, long enough for the sun to be coming up. And where had it gotten him? This was the first relevant entry he had found in their logbook and it basically only told him what he already knew: that teleporting somewhere you had never been before, with no intent to do so, was not normal. It was not his only worry after this night, far from it, but it was the only one he felt able to do anything about.

He was sitting in Caps‘ old room, with the wounded boy still unconscious in the bed across from him. Next to him was Bwipo, also soundly asleep, but Broxah could not blame him. He had tried his best to stay awake, reading together with Broxah for some hours before exhaustion caught up to him. Broxah thought that he would probably have fallen asleep himself, were it not for some sort of weird protector instinct – he felt like he needed to be there when the boy finally woke up.

He looked so small and so much younger than them, and the fact that they didn’t know who he was meant that he had only discovered his magic in the last year, after the fall of the League.

Broxah still remembered the difficulty of his first months with magic. He had had veterans beside him, who had been doing this for years. He had had the League behind him, who made sure to train him properly before even letting him near the dangers of the real world. He had even had a childhood friend beside him, who he discovered everything together with. And it had still been so utterly terrifying. Finally facing the things he had deemed as hallucinations for all his life and coming to terms with the fact that they were real and there were much worse ones out there had been one of the hardest things he had ever done.

He couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for this boy. He had none of the support Broxah had relied on, only four equally young and inexperienced magicians. And it seemed like that inexperience had led them to trying to face something that they were in no way prepared for, and paying a terrible price for it.

Next to him, Bwipo began to stir. First, he frowned heavily and then bolted up in his seat.

„Good morning“, Broxah said calmly. Bwipo‘s gaze shot to him and after a second he relaxed, groaned, and sank back into the chair.

„Fuck, I fell asleep.“

Broxah just shrugged. „It’s okay. I don’t think we would have gotten anywhere together either.“

„So no luck, huh?“, Bwipo asked and nodded towards the tablet in Broxah‘s hands. Broxah shook his head, but Bwipo just shrugged. „Well, I’m sure we will find something at some point. It happened, that means it’s possible, and I’m yet to find something possible that Fnatic doesn’t have an entry on.“

„Yeah, you’re probably right“, Broxah responded, though his own optimism had dwindled over the past few hours.

„What about the others?“

„They came back like an hour after you fell asleep. Found enough honeyfruit to treat him and restock our supply. And I think now they’re both sleeping as well.“

Bwipo nodded, and looked at Broxah critically. „Honestly, you should probably go to sleep as well. You look terrible.“

„I can’t. I want to be there when he wakes up.“ Though his eyes did burn, and his mind was becoming a little cloudy.

„Fair enough, I guess.“ He got up and stretched. „I’m going to make myself a coffee. Should I bring you one?“

Broxah contemplated the offer, and turned his head to look at Bwipo.

„That sounds great, actually. Thank you.“

„No worries“, Bwipo just answered, and left the room.

Broxah turned back, and found the boy sitting up and staring at him directly. He froze. How had he woken up so quickly? After a few moments of processing, Broxah managed to regain his composure, and tried putting on a reassuring smile.

„Uh, hi there, my friend. How are you?“

The boy showed no indication that he had heard him. Instead, he briefly looked left and right and back at Broxah.

„Where am I?“ His voice was hoarse, but firm, and he seemed more lucid than Broxah would have thought possible so shortly after waking up.

„You’re at the Fnatic base. I’m Broxah.“ He paused, as the boy’s expression grew annoyed of all things.

„Of fucking course I am. I can just never be lucky, I guess“, he murmured, mostly to himself, while shaking his head. This wasn’t at all what Broxah had expected him to say, so he needed a few moments to process what he could mean by it.

„Um, listen... We don’t mean you any harm. We brought you here to get you to safety.“

The boy snorted and shot him a disbelieving look.

„Yes, of course you did.“ He looked away just as quickly, and there was an uncomfortable silence, while Broxah searched for the right words. He understood why the boy didn’t believe him.

Teams didn’t help each other – they competed, and fought for every new weapon and monster and every inch of territory. But in the end, the other teams were also just people and their code to protect people from monsters didn’t exclude them. At least that was what Broxah thought.

„You were going to die. I’m not going to let anyone die if I can prevent it, different team or not.“

That was the first thing he said to really get the boy’s attention. He met Broxah’s gaze and examined him intently. After a few seconds he nodded, and his expression changed.

„So none of the others made it, huh?“ His voice was softer and in his face Broxah could see that he already knew the answer. A wave of sympathy washed over him.

„I’m so sorry“, he simply said, because there was no point in saying anything else. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain of losing your whole team, the only people you could fully trust.

The boy just swallowed and looked away.

„How much do you remember?“

The boy didn’t answer. He pulled his knees to his chest and began nestling with his blanket and Broxah realized how inconsiderate that had been.

„I’m sorry. You of course don’t have to talk about it right now. I can leave you alone if you want?“ A small nod was the only answer he got. He stood, and ran his hand through his hair.

„Can I bring you anything? Water, more honeyfruit? Are you hungry?“

„I don’t need anything.“

Broxah’s heart ached for the boy, who looked so broken and lost, lips trembling and eyes glistening. He wanted to say something, to comfort him and take away some of his pain, but he knew that it wasn’t his place, and he would be intruding.

„It’s okay. I’ll just... yeah.“

His attempt at a reassuring smile failed pretty miserably, but the boy wasn’t looking at him anyway. Broxah hesitated for another second, but then shook his head and left the room, carefully closing the door behind him.


	8. Obliterate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday :)
> 
> A day early, because I won't have time on the weekend - enjoy!

Rekkles‘ dreams were filled with ink-black wafts of mist that seemed to have no end. They were filled with monsters in confusing and horrifying shapes and hellish red eyes, that followed him wherever he ran. They whispered promises to him, promises about ripping him to shreds and eating his heart. They were going to do it, he knew it deep in his soul, they would kill him the second he stopped. And so he ran for hours and hours, until his legs were burning and his lungs melting.

When he woke up in the morning, he somehow felt more tired than before. He sat up and ran a hand over his face, trying to clear his head from the haunting red eyes. But he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, as if the monsters from his dream were now hiding in the shadows of his room.

The details of the dream were already starting to slip from him, everything blurring together into a mix of pain, fear, and exhaustion. The only clear memories now were the red eyes and the thought of his dream self, that this was the end of the world. Why had he been so convinced of that? He couldn’t remember.

Rekkles shook his head and decided to just forget it and get up. He grabbed a sweater, and made his way downstairs.

Hyli was already in the kitchen, fiddling with the coffee machine and the toaster. He turned around when Rekkles came in and looked him over critically. Rekkles tried his best to pull himself together to not let anything show.

„I made breakfast“, was the first thing Hyli said.

„What time is it?“

„Ten-ish. Broxah said he wanted to hold a council of war“, Hyli said, while Rekkles got a glass from the kitchen cabinet. „The boy woke up.“

„Really? Did he say anything?“

Hyli just shook his head, but stopped Rekkles by the shoulder when he tried to push past him to get to the sink. Rekkles looked at him in surprise.

„What...“

„Are you okay? You’re shaking.“

„I’m just cold.“ A lame excuse. Hyli frowned at him and Rekkles tried to somehow avert both his eyes and the red ones in the corner of his vision. But wasn’t it obvious that Hyli was not going to let this slide.

„Are you not spooked?“, Rekkles asked quietly after a few seconds of silence. Was he wrong to be scared? For not being able to get the images out of his head?

„Of course I am. What we saw was... terrifying. But is that all there is?“

Now it was Rekkles‘ turn to furrow his brows.

„Hyli, what are you talking about?“

„We still haven’t talked about where you were yesterday.“

Rekkles had almost forgotten Febiven. His worries from yesterday seemed so small and far away now.

„Is that really still important?“

„I don’t know. Is it?“ The sharpness with which Hyli seemed to look right through him made Rekkles think. Did he know about Febiven? It was entirely possible that one of their scanners picked him up – he used a weapon in their territory for God’s sake. He suddenly felt very naive for ever thinking that the others hadn’t noticed.

But Hyli was standing here and giving him the choice if he wanted to talk about it or not. He was asking him if it was important.

Was it? Febiven was back, but he was already with Misfits. He had promised to end this cold war that the teams were currently in, but it was Febiven – in the end, he just liked making empty promises.

„No. It’s really not.“

Hyli gave him a small smile. „Okay. Let’s eat then.“

Bwipo and Broxah entered the room, quietly discussing something, when Hyli and Rekkles sat down at the table. Broxah told them everything he had read and everything the boy had said over their first cup of coffee, and at the end Rekkles was more awake, but none the wiser.

„So we know that we don’t know anything“, Bwipo summarized. „We don’t know why or how we teleported, what kind of monster that was, or who that guy is.“

The others nodded and a depressing silence spread over the table.

„Well, we can definitely try to change some of that today“, Broxah said, trying to lift the mood as always. „I didn’t even get halfway through the log book. I’m sure there’s something useful in there somewhere.“

Rekkles flinched when a red light appeared in the corner of his vision, but it was just the coffee machine, choosing this moment to beg for more water. He crossed his arms, as if that would somehow calm his rapidly beating heart.

„Yeah, for sure“, Bwipo continued. „We should read further today. But honestly, I think we should also think about going back there and take another look around. I’m sure we missed something that could tell us what kind of monster that was.“

„No“, Rekkles blurted out. „We can’t go back unless we know exactly what we would be facing and how to prepare for it. It already cost one team their lives.“ The others nodded and Bwipo just shrugged.

„Yeah, fair enough. Was just a thought. Reading for all of us, then.“

„Not for Broxah“, Hyli interjected quickly. Broxah frowned.

„Not for me?“

„You need to sleep. I can tell that you didn’t last night. So, you sleep before you do any reading.“ Broxah looked like he wanted to protest, but in the end just chuckled.

„Fine. I’ll try to get some sleep, just for you. I am a bit tired, not gonna lie.“

„I’ll also help you guys later“, Rekkles said. He hesitated and ran his hands along his arms. „I need to clear my head first.“

„So only the two of us, Hyli. Just like old times“, Bwipo said, grinning.

 

Rekkles knew that it had been the right decision, as soon as his fingers closed around the trigger of his gun. He felt like the ground had just stopped shaking underneath him and now his balance was back. This was his weapon, the one he had used to defend himself and his friends for seven years now and just the familiarity of its handle and weight was enough to get rid of this shakiness inside of him. With this weapon, he was unstoppable, and he proved it to himself with every shot he fired at their holographic dummies, tearing them to shreds with absolute precision.

He went without the shots at the ground that could propel you far into the air today, caring just about the accuracy and speed of his shots. It was bad on the knees anyway.

He was so focused that he only noticed the boy when he was already standing right in front of him. He was a bit gray in the face, but looked fairly healthy, and he was holding an empty glass. After a few shocked seconds, Rekkles straightened up.

„You’re up.“

„Yes. You’re Rekkles, right?“

He nodded. The boy held the glass towards him.

„I think Broxah brought me this.“ Rekkles let his weapon disappear and took the glass. He waited for the boy to say something else for a few seconds, but he didn’t.

„Do you... do you want more water? You can also get something to eat.“

„I think... more water would be good. Thank you.“

„No problem. Come on.“

Rekkles started to lead the boy trough the bridge towards the kitchen. Bwipo and Hyli had made their way into their office on the second floor, after loudly – and jokingly – complaining about all the noise Rekkles was making, so they were alone on this floor now.

„What’s your name?“, Rekkles asked, surprised that none of them had already asked.

„Tim“, the boy answered quietly, sitting down at the kitchen table while Rekkles got him some water from the tap.

„And your nickname?“

„I don’t know“, Tim said with slight distress in his voice. „Do you still have a nickname if you don’t have a team?“ He clung to the glass of water Rekkles placed in front of him as if it was a lifeline.

„I’m so sorry.“

Tim took a deep breath. „I’m ready to tell you about it now.“

„Okay. If you’re sure, I can get the others now“, Rekkles answered, halfway getting up. Tim frowned.

„Do you have to?“

Rekkles paused, and then slid back onto his chair. „No, of course not. I understand if you don’t want a lot of people there.“ Tim nodded and they didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Rekkles was trying to give him the space he needed, and not rush him. Finally, the boy took a deep breath and started talking, slowly, methodically.

“I am... I was on a team called Mad Lions since right after I discovered magic. About a year. I don’t think the details are important anymore, but... it was yesterday evening when our crystal picked up a dragon close to our base. We knew it was bold for us to attack it, because we were all so young and had never fought a monster of that size, but we thought we could handle it.”

He let out a shaky breath.

“It even worked. Crownie... Crownshot managed to shoot an arrow that pierced its wing and forced it to fight us on the ground. It was going so well... I’m sure we would have killed it.” His gaze trailed off into the distance and his eyes widened in fear at a memory.

“It came without warning. Suddenly there just was this black… fog everywhere. I couldn’t see anything anymore, not the others or the dragon or the… _things_ that were in it. It just…” He started shivering a little and his head turned back to Rekkles, but he was looking through him. He reopened his mouth, but it took a while before he talked again. “It _smelled_ like death. And these things… whatever they were, they were screaming, like they were in horrible pain.”

Rekkles finally managed to speak up and interrupt him. “It’s okay. You don’t have to keep talking about it.” Tim furrowed his brow, irritated.

“But I do. I haven’t even gotten to the important part yet.”

“If you’re sure...”

“It’s not like I can forget that shit anyway.” The other snapped, which made Rekkles shut up.

They both looked up when Broxah entered the room, hair still a mess from sleeping, and stopped at the sight of them.

„Oh, you’re here.“ He was looking at Tim and sounded genuinely surprised.

„Tim was just telling me about what happened yesterday.“

„Oh“, Broxah said and seemed unsure what to do, hesitating between the door and the table.

„You can stay if you want“, Tim said. Broxah nodded and pulled one of the empty chairs towards him. Once he sat, Rekkles continued their conversation.

“So, what happened next? Who did that to your shoulder?”

The boy looked down, as if just remembering his injuries, though they had to hurt like hell.

“He was the first thing I saw when the fog cleared a little. He’s… giant. He wore massive black armor and was carrying a mace with spikes. It was almost as tall as me. When he turned around, I could see…” His voice had gotten monotone and quiet and now slowly died out, but he cleared his throat and continued.

“He didn’t have eyes. I’m not even sure he had a body at all. It just seemed like empty armor with glowing red light where the eyes were supposed to be… I think I managed to ask something, like, where the hell he was coming from, but he just laughed.

I couldn’t do anything but summon my sword before the mace hit me. Think I flew three meters through the air.” His fingers trailed along the edges of the bandages Hyli had applied across his chest, seemingly lost in thought.

“He was going to kill me, but Selfmade... he appeared from the fog somewhere behind the monster, and, and shot him in the back with his shotgun. I’ve seen what that thing does to monsters, and it didn’t even hurt him. But it distracted him. Enough... enough to turn around and go at Selfmade instead.“ Rekkles and Broxah couldn’t help bot look at each other when hearing that. Tim didn’t seem to notice that, too lost in his own story.

„The first blow hit the shotgun from his hand. The second hit him right in the chest.“ He stopped, the third blow needing no vocalization. For a few seconds, it was silent. And then, his face contorted with grief and he hid his head in his hands.

„I crawled the other way. I left him.“ It sounded like a confession to murder.

Rekkles‘ heart fell, when he realized that this boy was blaming himself for the death of his teammate, even though he was deadly injured himself.

„No, Tim, you can’t...“

„I don’t know why he didn’t just come looking for me, after“, Tim interrupted Broxah, determined to just get this story over with. „Maybe he forgot, because we were so insignificant. Maybe he just thought I was already dead. Maybe yet another teammate killed himself for me“, he said, his voice dark and bitter. Then he closed his eyes for a second, shook his head, and continued in his neutral tone.

„I still remember that the dragon screeched terribly loudly. I think he killed it, too. And then the fog cleared a little, but I couldn’t do anything, I was passing out. And then I woke up here.”

„I’m so sorry“, Rekkles said, and he felt like a broken record, but he didn’t know what else to say.

„Do you know him? What he is?“, Tim asked, staring Rekkles dead in the eyes, an eerie void in his gaze.

Broxah and Rekkles shared a look to make sure they were thinking the same thing.

„No. I’ve never heard of any monster like that.“

„Do you know anything about the black mist?“, the boy asked, still so weirdly expressionless. Again, Broxah and him were thinking the same thing.

„No, we don’t, I’m sorry. But listen, we will find...“

But there was something about the boys‘ question, a word, that made Rekkles’ brain tingle, tugging at the faintest of memories in his subconscious. He froze.

“Wait. You said something different this time.”

“What?” The boy was irritated, but Rekkles was sure that he was on the right track. His eyes were darting around the room as he was trying to connect the dots.

“You said mist instead of fog this time. Why?”

“What? How does it matter if I say mist or fog or… fucking clouds?”

„Yeah, Martin...“, Broxah started now, too, almost as confused as Tim.

„I... I do know something about Black Mist. But... that’s not possible.“ Rekkles began slowly shaking his head, as the whole story came back to him, and he thought of what it would mean if he was actually right. „You must be wrong. It can’t be Black Mist.“

„I just said what I saw. It was mist, and it was black“, Tim said, one eyebrow raised.

„Martin, can you please just explain“, Broxah said, exasperated.

It was difficult for Rekkles to stop his thoughts from running wild about his new discovery, racing from every memory they could get to every conclusion that he could draw, but he knew that he had to slow down to get the others to understand. So he took a deep breath and ran his hands over his face, and thought of where to start. „Black Mist is mentioned in one of the casters‘ prophecies. The Harrowing.“

„I don’t remember that one“, Broxah said, swaying his head lightly. „What does it have to do with Black Mist?“

„Wait“, the boy interjected, confused. „What is a caster?“ He looked genuinely lost. Rekkles stared at him in disbelief.

„Oh my... I forgot, you’ve never been in the League“, he then realized and couldn’t help but be a little bewildered at that fact. Everything about the League was so ingrained in him at this point that he couldn’t even imagine being a magician without knowing about it.

„In the League, there were people, that we called casters, that were able to see magic clearly, but not use it the way we could. So, they are something between normal humans and us. And some of them…“, Broxah began to answer Tim’s question, but Rekkles suddenly realized something else.

„Wait, do you even know how magic works? Like, where it comes from?“

„From Runeterra, right?“, Tim asked and Rekkles nodded.

„Yeah. What we call magic is basically just the innate energy of relics and creatures from another world called Runeterra, that travelled to this world with a portal. And we are the children that were born with a sort of connection to Runeterra that allows us to use its energy. It’s like a different plane of existence.

Some of the casters have a different connection to Runeterra. It allows them to not only see magic here, but also cast their minds to any location and any point in history in Runeterra. So, when the League still existed, they could tell us everything about a weapons’ origins, who it belonged to and in what wars it had fought, because they could watch its whole history with their spirits.

And because they could also see into Runeterra's future, it allowed them to predict when new weapons or monsters would appear in our world, because they could see the portals forming in theirs.“

„So, in the League, they would tell you when to go where?“, Tim asked.

„Yeah, and what we had to expect. And then we did the job.“

„But then you knew this was coming?“, Tim asked further, frowning. „This Harrowing. If they can predict the future, you knew exactly that this was coming right now.“

„Well, no. Casting is not... an exact science. We all learned that the hard way“, Rekkles answered, his thoughts trailing off to last year, to the last predictions he had heard a caster make. Broxah shot him a calculating look, and then explained.

„Casters can mostly predict what is going to happen, but some are better at it than others, and it is never really exact. One told me that sometimes, the images just go fuzzy and they don’t know why. And the farther something is into the future, the less clear the picture they can get is. They could tell you pretty exactly what was going to happen tomorrow, but something that was a year away could also be a hundred years away.“

Tim listened to him intently, squinting his eyes. „So, one of those... casters saw the Harrowing?“

„All of them saw the Harrowing“, Rekkles said, snorting. „It was the one thing they could always agree on. But it belonged to those fuzzy images, where none of them could say when it was going to happen. It could be in ten years, or a hundred. They didn’t even know if it had already happened.“

„I’m pretty sure we would know about that“, Tim said. Rekkles shrugged.

„Maybe. Maybe it was what happened before our civilisation formed. Kind of like the Great Flood. The point is, none of them knew.“

„But what even happens during the Harrowing? You’re making it sound like the apocalypse, but...“ Broxah left the question hanging.

„I don’t think I remember all the details. But basically, the story is that during the Harrowing seven spirits of undeath would come to this world, with an army of the dead. They were more powerful than any other monster, some of them were as strong as literal gods. They would make sun would disappear, and then the streets would be filled with black mist that traps lost souls in it. Anyone that was in the mist for too long would have their life sucked out of them and turn into a lost soul themselves.“

„So, it’s just ghost-fog that kills you?“, Tim asked. Rekkles frowned at him.

„Do you think this is funny?“

„Of course. Losing all my friends is hilarious.“ You could almost think he was bored, but Rekkles noticed the dead look in his eyes had turned steely and the hard edges of his jaw.

„Guys, this is not helping“, Broxah told them both off. „Do you think the monster Tim saw was one of those seven spirits?“

„I have no idea. I don’t remember a lot about them. Just that there was one of them that could kill you with just his voice.“

„What is the result of the Harrowing? Like, when does it end?“

„Well, in the story... If no one can stop it, in the end the whole world will be covered in Black Mist and... well, everyone will die.“

„And how do we stop it?“

„I don’t know. I don’t know if there is anything we can do.“

„Of course there is. We just have to find out what it is“, Broxah said, resolutely optimistic. Rekkles didn’t want to contradict, though more details of his memories were coming back. He understood now why the Black Mist had subconsciously affected him so much.

„What about you?“, Broxah now turned to Tim. „Will you help us?“

„No. I will go and kill the monster that did this“, he answered matter-of-factly.

„What? No, you can’t!“

„Why not?“

„Did you hear what Rekkles just said? He is a bringer of the apocalypse!“

„I don’t care. He killed Selfmade.“

„But...“, Broxah was so shocked that he didn’t find the words. „It would be suicide.“ He looked to Rekkles helplessly. Tim also turned to him, one eyebrow raised again. Rekkles hesitated. He didn’t want to make this decision.

„You’re not even fully healed yet. Like, if you want to leave, you can leave, but... Broxah is right. It would be suicide. You wouldn’t even get close to killing him.“ The boy squinted at him for a few seconds, but in the end just shrugged.

„Fine. Until I’m healed then.“


	9. Distortion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday! :)
> 
> One day late, but better late than never ^^   
> Enjoy!

„Caps, you really need to start concentrating.“

Caps groaned when his head hit the ground for the third time in the last ten minutes.

„Maybe I’m just not good at this anymore.“

„Bullshit“, Miky said while helping him up. „If you actually concentrated, you would instantly figure this out. Try again.“

Caps didn’t answer, but begrudgingly obeyed and stood in front of Miky. His image flickered and then he disappeared for a second, before two versions of him reappeared and began menacingly walking towards Miky with mirrored movements. He took a short look at the two of them and then decisively swung his staff around to knock the left Caps off his feet. Caps groaned again – the fourth time – as he hit the floor and his clone vanished into thin air. Miky rested his head on his staff and looked at him, equal parts amused and concerned.

„Caps. I can tell which one is real if you keep frowning like that.“

Caps didn’t answer and Miky saw that he had to accept that his idea wasn’t working.

He had noticed Caps‘ unusually bad mood over the last few days, ever since they had come back from the amusement park and their fight against that damned scarecrow. It was especially remarkable, because it was the first time since he joined the team that he could be described as anything other than a ray of sunshine.

After two days, Miky decided to try and distract him with something that he knew Caps loved in particular.

For most people, it was the fighting that really made them love magic, the rushes of high from defeating monsters, the feeling of doing right by protecting people, and the unity of a team behind them.

But for Caps, it seemed to be a lot more fundamental than that. He lived for the most basic part of magic, just him and his weapon, and spending hours and hours perfecting every move and finding every ounce of ability that you could squeeze out of a weapon. And that was also the reason that he loved testing out new weapons in particular – because everything was still unknown, a goldmine of exciting possibilities waiting to be explored, and he got to be endlessly creative.

So, Miky had assumed that sneaking away one of Perkz‘ weapons, one of the bunch that he didn’t really use anymore, but was still weirdly possessive over, and letting Caps try it out, would be the easiest way to cheer him up. Wrongly assumed, it seemed.

„Caps. What is wrong?“ Caps didn’t answer, but just sat on the floor and stared into the air gloomily. Miky sighed, let his staff disappear, and sat down next to him.

„It’s just... Why am I here?“, Caps said after a long silence.

„I thought that you would like to test this weapon. And if you’re frustrated because of the clone, you wouldn’t believe ho long Luka needed to even notice that it could do that, so you shouldn’t feel bad about not perfecting it instantly.“

„No, no. I don’t mean here right now. I mean... G2. Why am I with G2?“

„Um... because you joined, I guess? I think I’m not really following here.“

Caps didn’t say anything yet again, so Miky pressed further.

„Do you... do you not want to be here?“

„No! That’s not what I meant! Of course I want to be here, like, I like it here, and I like you guys, and it’s all great. It’s just... The way I joined was so weird, right?“

He looked to Miky, as if asking for confirmation, and Miky shrugged. He was not going to argue against that.

Caps joining them had been weeks after the fall of the League, when the territories had already somewhat settled, and the teams had started to figure out their schedules and responsibilities.

Miky and his team had just been about to leave for their first real mission – a giant purple monster that kept eating people whole – when they were stopped, by Caps standing at their front door, a bag in his hand, and an expression almost as confused as their own. Miky still remembered how he had stood there, trying to explain to them that he had felt G2’s call over two countries, and how looking at Perkz’s expression had almost made Miky fear for the boys‘ life. Because this was just weeks after the incident that had made the League fall, and Caps was from Fnatic, and what he was trying to tell them was unheard of.

Crystals didn’t make connections with magicians over distances. Not one of them knew of any case where a crystal had called for someone without the two physically being in the same place. That had never been an obstacle for players changing teams, because, when the League still existed, all the crystals had been at the studio, the teams‘ joint base of operation at the time, so everyone was in constant contact with all the crystals anyway. But no magician, no matter how powerful, had ever joined a team, or felt the call to join a team without visiting the base.

And yet, there Caps was, and before any of them could say anything, something almost as bizarre as what he was saying happened: their crystal appeared in the entrance hall of their base behind them.

It wasn’t quite as bizarre as what he was saying, because this wasn’t absolutely unheard of. They knew crystals could move on their own when they needed to, like on the day the League fell, when their crystal followed them on their escape out of Berlin. It was just that they needed to have a very good reason to bring up the energy to move.

But the crystal was there, and when the wavering grey light around it began to extend towards Caps, like the twigs of a plant growing towards the sun, they knew he had been telling the truth.

„I guess, it’s just that... it had to have a reason to do that, I... I mean, like, a specific reason. Something only I could do for example. I thought that if it went through so much trouble to get me, there has to be something more behind it.“

„I mean, I think we all kind of agree on that.“ Miky frowned. This conversation was confusing the hell out of him.

„And that scarecrow just now... Perkz said that maybe it was the start of something bigger, right? That he had kind of a weird feeling about it. What if that is what G2 needed me for? To fight whatever thing this scarecrow was a part of?“

„Yeah, that’s possible, I guess.“

„Well, then I already failed step one“, Caps said quietly, staring at the floor. Miky’s brain needed a few seconds to catch up. He stared at Caps in disbelief.

„Is that really what this is about? You think you failed with the scarecrow?“

„I mean, kind of, yeah.“

„But you couldn’t even fail there, because you didn’t have a weapon, because I told you not to bring one, because I was the one who failed“, Miky said emphatically. Caps grimaced and rubbed his temples.

„It’s just... it’s such a stupid mistake to make. If I still make mistakes like this... what if I’m not ready to do what I need to?“

„Well, I’m pretty sure you will never make that specific mistake again.“ Caps looked at him annoyed, but Miky held up a hand, before he could protest. „Yeah, I know. But seriously Caps – you are the most powerful magician I’ve ever seen. I know that you can do this. Whatever this actually turns out to be. Don’t tell the others i said that“, he added, frowning. Caps gave him a small smile.

„But also – this is what we’re a team for. We’ve got your back as much as you’ve got ours. You don’t need to do anything alone.“

„I mean, yeah.“ Caps voice was still quiet, but Miky knew that he believed him. He playfully nudged him in the side.

„And who knows – maybe the thing G2 needs you for is actually just being bait and you did perfectly.“

„Haha“, Caps murmured. Miky just laughed and got up, extending his hand towards Caps.

„Come on. Let’s figure this clone thing out now.“ Caps took the offered hand, but before they could even summon their weapons, they were stopped by two loud voices screaming in the hallway leading to their gym. Miky sighed.

„Grabbz.“

The door to the gym burst open, and an entanglement of blond hair and black feathers fell into the room, still loudly screaming.

„Just hold still you fucking stupid bird, I don’t even... ow!“

„Grabbz, Grabbz, Grabbz!“

Miky covered his ears, when the bird freed itself from Jankos‘ grip by hacking at his fingers, and, when it succeeded, hurled itself into Caps‘ arms with a triumphant screech.

„Oh my God, I hate you so much Grabbz, like...“

„Just don’t grab him, Jankos, what the fuck? Like, of course he’s gonna freak out“, Caps scolded him, while reassuringly stroking the bird’s feathers. Jankos just now realized that he wasn’t alone in the room, and stared at them dumbfounded for a few seconds. Then, he picked himself up.

„I just wanted to bring him back to his room“, he explained to Caps. „Also, he freaked out before I grabbed him. He just hates me.“

„Well, you keep screaming at him.“

„He’s screaming at me first!“

„Yeah, sure.“

Miky looked between Caps, who was scowling at Jankos, and Jankos, who was scowling at Grabbz, and the parrot, who was picking at his feathers and continually murmuring „Grabbz, Grabbz, Grabbz“ (the only thing he ever said, which had earned him his name, though none of them knew what it meant), and wondered if he was actually the only sane person in this team. He took a deep breath.

„What is going on, Jankos?“

„Well, before this bird flew at me, I was actually looking for you.“

„Why?“ Jankos lifted his eyes from Grabbz, and looked directly at Miky, expression suddenly very grave.

„Luka lost his mind.“

 

 

„No“, Miky said, appalled.

„Why not?“, Perkz asked.

„Because I don’t want to attack other teams.“

„It’s not about attacking anyone. It’s about making a system of protection that actually works.“

„By attacking other teams and stealing their territory from them.“

Perkz groaned, frustrated, but Miky wouldn’t budge. All five members of G2 were present, standing around the table in their office.

Jankos crossed his arms. „I told them they same thing, but they didn’t listen.“

„I mean, you also didn’t listen to us“, Wunder shot back.

„Yeah, I didn’t. Because it’s unnecessary. We don’t need to attack the balance that we have, now, after the League. Everyone has their own territory and it’s all fine.“

„Is it though? Are they all good enough to do what they need to?“

„They were good enough for the League, why would they not be now?“, Jankos asked, throwing his hands into the air in frustration. Wunder raised his eyebrows.

„Well, because the League assigned missions based on the strength of the teams. They didn’t send bad teams to kill a dragon, because they knew they would fail. And you all know what happened the one time they overestimated a team and sent them to a mission they couldn’t handle. But now, there is no choice anymore. Everyone has to face everything that turns up in their territory. And some of them can’t handle it.“

„That’s speculation“, Miky objected.

„Fine, let me say it this way then“, Perkz said, and leaned towards Jankos and Miky. „Two days ago, we were attacked by a monster, without expecting it or preparing for it. Only three of us had weapons. And we killed it without a single person getting hurt.“ Perkz raised his arms and started slowly walking around the table. „But what if that scarecrow had decided to attack somewhere else? Do you think that if it had attacked in the territory of... Rogue, or Excel, or maybe our new, inexperienced neighbours, what’s their name... Angry Lions? Do you think that they would have handled it as well as we did?“

„I don’t know. We can’t know that. Probably“, Jankos said, irritated.

„So you trust every team out there to protect their people from every threat? Unconditionally?“

A long silence followed. Miky couldn’t help but think of some magicians he knew – some teammates he had had – that, with years of training, hadn’t been able to do the things he saw his teammates in G2 just do on the fly. And, while he had teased Caps earlier with how much better he was at handling the clone of Perkz‘ weapon than Perkz himself, he knew that a lot of others struggled to even summon the staff of this weapon, let alone do anything with it. Finally, Jankos broke the silence.

„But how do you even envision this great plan of yours? Do you want us to just walk into the other teams‘ territories and force them to give it over, one by one? And in the end what is supposed to happen? Just the five of us, protecting the whole world?“

„Anyone that knows what they’re doing is welcome to join us!“

„And it’s probably you that decides who knows what they’re doing and who doesn’t? Luka, that is hubris. You just want the League again, but with us at the top this time.“

„Yeah. The League didn’t fail because it was a bad system, it failed because it had members that weren’t up to the task.“

„That’s cold, Luka“, Miky said.

„Why don’t you understand? This is just the best way to reliably protect people!“, Perkz said, his tone now pleading. Jankos raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

„Oh, don’t bullshit me Luka, this is not about protecting people. You’re doing this because you want more power and because you decided that if people are too bad with a weaponyou can deny them the right to have it.“

„And even if it was? Even if I just wanted to do something because I think certain weapons are wasted with certain people and they shouldn’t have them, or because I hate some of the teams – for fucks sake, even if it was just because I’m bored, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m right. Europe being just our territory or a League with us at the top would make it safer for a lot of people.“

„But...“

„Fine, Jankos“, Perkz interrupted him. „Whatever. Let’s just vote on it.“

Jankos stared at him for a few seconds, then looked towards Miky and Caps, and shrugged. „Yeah. Let’s. I vote no. I don’t think we should expand our territory by swallowing up those of other teams.“

„I vote yes. We owe it to the people to protect them. To all the people“, Perkz said.

„I vote yes too“, Wunder said, and raised his hands in defense against Jankos accusatory look. „Jankos, I get what you are saying, but, like, do you remember some of them training back in the League? Like, they were really trolling. I wouldn’t trust them with keeping a houseplant alive.“

„I also vote no. I don’t want to fight any of them“, Miky said quietly.

They all turned their heads to Caps, who had been so awfully quiet the whole time, and when Miky saw his expression, his heart fell. He looked at Miky with a mix of hope and guilt.

„What if this is it?“, he asked slowly. Miky shook his head.

„It’s not. Caps, it’s not.“

„What if... the point of making the strongest team possible was... so it would only ever need one team again?“ Miky wanted to say something, but Caps turned away from him.

„I also vote yes.“


	10. Death Sentence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I am not dead!
> 
> ... so, sorry that this chapter took so long, but in the past month, my life was kind of busy - moved cities, started uni, and had to figure out living on my own, which all meant that I didn't have a ton of time for writing. (it also didn't help that this was one of the hardest chapters yet)
> 
> Buut, now I am done, so please: Happy Tuesday, and enjoy! ^^

„I’m sure there’s something here“, Rekkles said and stuck his head under Caps’ bed. He immediately had to cough when that raise up some dust that was definitely a lot older than just a few weeks.

„Goddamnit, Caps“, he mumbled, and waved the dust away.

„You don’t need to give me my own weapon. If Bwipo is really fine with lending me one of his, I’m okay with that“, Tim said.

„Yeah, but that’s not necessary.“ Rekkles reappeared from under the bed and triumphantly held up the box he had found. „No one uses these anyway, as you can probably see. So you can gladly take them.“

He opened the box to reveal three small, blue crystals, and raised his eyebrows. „Guess he even took some of these.“

Tim gave him a questioning look, but didn’t say anything. He finally took one of the crystal bracelets Rekkles was offering him.

„Why don’t you use them?“

„They just don’t fit any of our styles. We didn’t even want to take them when we left the League, but Caps kind of insisted. He almost died for getting those, but never stopped saying that it was worth, because they were gonna come in handy one day“, Rekkles said, half-smiling at the memory.

„Did they?“

„Well, they do now, right? Now use it already.“

Tim slipped the bracelet onto his wrist, but hesitated again before activating it.

„Can I ask another question first?“

„Uh, of course“, Rekkles said, frowning. He sounded so serious.

„Why did the League fall?“

„Oh.“ That was not what he had expected.

„It’s just something I’ve been asking myself for a while. And I never had anyone to ask“, Tim explained. Rekkles sank onto the bed and set the box with the remaining crystals next to him.

„Well, if you ask me, it was... a series of unfortunate events, really. It happened last october. October is always a busy month for some reason, but last year it was insane. There were so many monsters and weapons and minions spawning that we couldn’t have handled all of them if we always sent complete teams. So we started... well, I probably have to mention that it was my idea“, he added with a bitter laugh. „We started to send only parts of teams, two people, or three, to handle certain things. And at first, it really helped. But then, an Elder Drake showed up, and the only people available were parts of different teams, of H2K, the Unicorns, and G2. The League officials... they should have called someone back, or waited a day, or... anything, really. I never meant for teams to be split up for something big like this. Doesn’t matter now, I guess“, he said, running a hand over his face.

„They all died“, Tim said, and Rekkles nodded grimly.

„Of course. An Elder Drake is the most dangerous monster you can face. You need perfect coordination, and teamwork, and trust to fight it, something six people from three teams just can’t have.“

„But I don’t understand...“

„Why that broke the League?“

„Yes.“

„Yeah. Maybe if it was at a different time, it wouldn’t have. Maybe,if it hadn’t happened to these teams out of all of them... But Perkz... we had always kind of hated each other, so it was just natural I guess. He accused me and the League officials of planning that – of only proposing our stupid idea to eliminate unwelcome teams and make it look like accidents. And then... Well, someone shot first.“

„They shot at you?“

„Not at me. Who knows if it was even on purpose? In the end, it probably doesn’t matter. It was in the central hall of the League and all teams were there. If the situation was strained before, that just broke it. There was fighting, and shouting, and shots flying everywhere, and then, at some point, fire. Just pure chaos. The teams all fled, to different places. A lot ended up at previous outposts of the League, or bases they had built independently.“

„So it’s not really a war then“, Tim determined. „You’re all just looking to keep out of each others‘ way.“

„Never said it was. Just... the end of a collaboration. Maybe it was inevitable anyways. If magic was supposed to work like that – with all of us working together – there would not be different teams, right? There would just be one. So with it being like this, it was probably just a matter of time. I’m sorry, this is really pointless. I’m probably boring you.“

Tim just shrugged. „I asked.“ With that, the topic was done for him, and he put the crystal bracelet on. It lit up in a ghostly blue, and with a flash of light, something appeared in his hands.

„For real?“ They shared a puzzled look. „A deck of cards?“, Tim asked.

„I’m sure they’re special somehow“, Rekkles answered, scratching his head.

Tim raised his eyebrows, and inspected the deck further. There were red, blue, and golden cards, all faintly glowing, but nothing overtly special about them.

„Why don’t you play one of them?“, Rekkles proposed, trying to hide his worries. Caps probably just left them weapons that were literally garbage, and he hadn’t bothered to think about that before.

„Play it?“

„Yeah, they’re playing cards, right? Just try to lay it on the floor or something.“

„That sounds really stupid“, Tim said, eyebrows raised once again.

„Yeah, I agree“, Rekkles admitted and shrugged. For a moment, they sat in silence, and thought of other options. Tim twirled one of the red cards in his hand.

„I wonder...“, he mumbled. Then, he abruptly moved his arm, and the card shot past Rekkles‘ head, hitting the wall behind him with a crack that was a lot too loud for a playing card. He turned around, and stared at the small crater that the card had blown into the wall. It lay amidst the small pieces of rubble on the floor, slightly smoking, but otherwise innocent-looking. It had also lost its faint red glow.

„Well“, Rekkles said into their stunned silence. „Good on you for figuring that out so quickly. But maybe we should test the other colors outside.“

Before they could decide what to do next, they heard Broxah’s voice calling them from the bridge. They followed, to find the team standing around the table in the middle of the room, stopped in whatever they were doing by the TV on the wall. Broxah turned to them, arms crossed in front of his chest, and a frown so deep Rekkles worried it would etch into his skin, and nodded to the screen.

A newswoman in a red coat was standing in a heavily foggy street, and nodding, with a frown almost as deep as Broxah’s.

„That’s right, Mark, this is the same region that I reported from last week, when the dead bodies of four young men were found on a field a little outside of town. From what the police have told us, it seems that they had the same injuries as the twelve bodies discovered today, which makes a connection between the cases very likely. But, as we have no other leads, we can’t draw any definitive conclusions yet. The police have warned the local population to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity.“

Hyli turned the volume down, when the camera cut back to the studio, and turned towards Rekkles.

„No“, Rekkles objected, as soon as Hyli opened his mouth.

„We have to stop him.“

„We can’t. We’re not prepared enough.“

„Martin, he killed twelve people in one attack“, Broxah said gravely.

„And he will kill even more people if we die in a rash attack that we had no business going for. We need to be as sure as possible that we will succeed, before we go for anything.“

„But we’ve been looking for a week now. If Fnatic had anything else on this... Mordekaiser, then, surely, we would have found it, no?“, Bwipo said, and gestured vaguely to the notes strewn across the table.

They had spent the last week compiling all the information they could find in the Fnatic archives about the Harrowing, or the seven spirits that came with it, but frustratingly little turned up. They had basically only found three names – Mordekaiser, Hecarim, and Karthus – but without a lot of context, or more infos.

„We will never feel prepared for something like this, so we have to say fuck it and just go“, Hyli said confidently.

Rekkles looked at the others in frustration. They were all on the same page on this, and he knew that he wouldn’t change their minds. Still, he couldn’t help but admire them. Their disregard for their own safety was as heroic as it was stupid. „Even if... Where is it, even?“, he asked, not willing to give up yet.

Broxah and Hyli shared a look that gave Rekkles a bad feeling already.

„In Tim’s old territory. In Spain“, Broxah said quietly.

Rekkles let out a shaky breath. „As if we needed another reason not to go. They will kill us if we meet them“

„Wait, who? Why is Spain a reason not to go?“, Tim asked, stepping up to the table with all of them.

„I told you about the teams that blamed me for the dragon. One of them is now in Spain. The worst one of them.“

„Spain is big“, Broxah said. „Twelve people, Martin.“

Rekkles could almost hear the words he wasn’t saying – _saving lives has top priority. Isn’t that what you always told me?_ He sighed.

„If we die doing this, I’m going to be seriously mad at you all.“

 

 

„Careful, Luka, there’s another.“

„Oh for fucks sake!“, Perkz exclaimed, as he turned around. „What is up with teams these days, man? Like, can they not take care of their waves, or what?“

Jankos just shrugged and watched from the roooftop, as Perkz shredded through another group of minions with the feathers from his cloak. He was not going to take the bait into another conversation about if other teams were good enough. He had other worries.

They were currently invading the territory of the Mad Lions, which was next to their own. They had received signals about a new weapon turning up here today, and Perkz and Wunder had deemed it the perfect opportunity to test the waters. Jankos was trying to coordinate everything, and make sure they would remain unseen for as long as possible.

„ _Miky, have you seen any other wards yet_?“, he asked, while still keeping an eye on Perkz, who was carefully walking down the street below him.

„ _Yeah, but it was also not active. All their wards and turrets are somehow dead.“_

 _„Good for us, honestly. And with the spanish people all liking their siesta so much, we could get in and out without being seen.“_ It was a compromise Perkz had given Miky and him, that they wouldn’t take things by force if it was avoidable. Jankos knew that this would probably not last, but he took what he could get.

 _„How close are you now?“_ , he asked Miky.

_„Almost there.“_

They were closing in on the market place of the small town, where the new crystal had appeared about an hour ago, from two different angles. Miky from the top, with Caps and Wunder trailing behind him, and Perkz from the bottom, shadowed by Jankos. Jankos jumped over the narrow street that Perkz was currently walking through, onto the roof of a house right on the edge of the plaza. It was a foggy day, as it had been so often the last weeks, so foggy that Jankos couldn’t see farther than the end of the plaza. He walked to the edge of the roof, but stopped, and held his breath, when he spotted something in the middle of the place.

„ _Perkz, stop.“_

 _„What? Why?“_ Perkz still had a left turn to make to be on the street leading to the market place, but if he did that, he would probably die. Jankos ducked behind the ledge of his roof, and stared at the group in the middle of the plaza.

_„Fnatic is here.“_

There was a few seconds of silence.

 _„What the fuck did you just say?“_ , Perkz whispered.

Miky appeared in the street leading towards the plaza that was opposite Jankos, and assessed the situation with a quick look.

„ _There’s five of them. They’re just standing there, facing your direction.“_

 _„They’re looking at a map“_ , Jankos said, who could see the light blue projection Fnatic huddled around.

„ _They have to be here for the crystal“,_ Wunder chimed in. „ _Why else would they come here?“_

„ _Bold fucking move of them, I have to admit. Do they have it already?“,_ Perkz asked.

„ _No, I can still see it in the fountain“,_ Jankos said, looking at the sensor on his wrist that showed him a strong energy signal pulsing from the fountain in the middle of the plaza, right next to Fnatic.

„ _Well, let’s give them hell. Wunder, Caps, can you warp in?“_

 _„Give me thirty seconds“_ , Wunder responded. Jankos frowned, looking from his wrist to Fnatic. The crystal was right in front of them – what were they looking at their map for?

„ _Something’s...“_

 _„Okay, let’s surround them. Jankos, Miky, I’m going in“_ , Perkz interrupted him. When Jankos looked down, he was already on the street leading to the plaza, and very visible to Fnatic, if they just looked up, giving Jankos no more time to think. He cursed and scrambled for the quickest way off the roof he was on. But of course there was no way – it was a roof, not made for quick exits. But Perkz was already halfway down the street, and they were going to see him any second now. He had to get to him before that.

Jankos channeled his two axes, and stood back up, trying to muster his courage. This would be fine. This weapon made him more robust, right? He would be fine.

He landed right next to Perkz. The impact knocked the wind out of his lungs, and for a second he was convinced that he had broken something. But then, adrenaline kicked in, and he could straighten up to find himself face to face with Fnatic, only a few meters separating them. In the few seconds between him jumping off the roof and now, they had drawn their weapons, but still seemed frozen in place, just staring at Perkz and him.

„I don’t know if you are brave, or just very, very stupid“, Perkz said slowly. Even to Jankos, he seemed threatening, with his clenched jaw, and three razor-sharp feather daggers ready in his fist.

Broxah was the first to react. He stepped forward, out of the center of the group, in front of Rekkles. He was the only one who wasn’t holding a weapon, but Jankos knew that his favorite weapon wasn’t anything visible – it just made him faster, stronger, and a more skilled fighter.

„This is not about what you thi...“ He was interrupted by a flash of blue light on their side, as Wunder’s portal painted a glowing circle on the ground, from which him and Caps appeared. Wunder’s eyes and the book in his hand were still glowing, and was grinning with anticipation. Caps next to him held two kunai ready in his hands, but although he was trying to hide the reluctance on his face, Jankos could still see it, and he was sure Fnatic could, too.

Bwipo’s and Hylissang’s faces showed that they now realized they were surrounded – the fountain to their left and G2 members on all their other sides.

„Guys, please, let us explain“, Broxah said, directed mostly towards Perkz, but he only had eyes for Rekkles in the very back of the group. Bwipo stepped next to Broxah and between Perkz and his teammates as though per chance, his giant sword casually in his hand.

„We’re here because of something bigger“, Rekkles now said, his tone pleading.

Jankos knew Perkz was going to go a split second before he did, and that gave him time to react. He jumped forward and raised his axe, blocking the blow from Bwipo, who was trying keep Perkz away from his captain. Chaos broke out, as they all started screaming and fighting at the same time.

Everything seemed to happen at once. Jankos could hear Miky shouting, and saw one of Caps‘ smoke bombs going off, while Perkz dove under Bwipo’s blade, and managed to slip past him. Jankos pulled Bwipo back by his arm, when he tried to follow, while Perkz now had to deal with Broxah right in front of him. Bwipo struck at Jankos once, twice, more, but he managed to block every hit. From the corner of his eye, he saw Perkz flying high up into the air, and rapid flashes of blue light from where Wunder was standing. But then, Bwipo caught him in the chest with the dull side of his blade, and he hit the ground, hard. The air was knocked from his lungs, and for a few seconds, he saw nothing but stars. Someone next to him screamed in horror. He rolled back onto his feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in his ribs.

The first thing he saw was Miky, standing in the middle of everyone, still encased in a weakening golden light, and then Perkz, who had somehow gotten past everyone, and was now pinning Rekkles to the ground, feather blade at his throat, Rekkles’ gun knocked out of his reach.

„No“, Broxah whispered, but they all knew that they were too far away to do anything that Perkz couldn’t react to. Jankos‘ gaze fell onto Caps, who hadn’t looked this terrified even in the face of certain death.

„Last words?“, Perkz asked.

„I never wanted them to die“, Rekkles said, and he just sounded tired.

„ _Luka, don’t“_ , Jankos heard himself send, and Perkz actually turned around, and followed his gaze.

„Goddamnit, Caps“, he growled. In the split second of hesitation that followed, the fifth member of Fnatic – Jankos just now realized that he didn’t know who it was – made an abrupt movement, and something golden flew towards Perkz. It clinked when it hit him, and dissolved instantly, rendering him motionless. Rekkles reacted instantly, scrambling towards his gun, and shooting Perkz square in the chest. The charge knocked him away from Rekkles, and in a matter of seconds, both teams were around their captains again.

Jankos and Miky rushed to see if Perkz was okay. He was only semi-conscious, aimlessly pushing their hands away.

„You’re not going to get the weapon“, Wunder said, who was standing protectively in front of them.

„What the hell are you talking about?“, someone from Fnatic said, and Jankos couldn’t help but agree. The weapon was the least of his worries right now. Miky next to him froze.

Perkz now was fully alert again, and tugging at Jankos‘ sleeve, but he was distracted by Miky, who had gotten up, and was staring at Fnatic.

„Tim?“, he asked, absolutely bewildered. The fifth guy with Fnatic returned the look, just as dumbfounded. Miky made a step forward, past Wunder, and stood in the space between the two teams. Jankos didn’t catch Tim’s answer, because Perkz kept tugging at his sleeve.

„What?“, he snapped. Perkz was staring at the sky, frowning.

„The fog“, he said slowly. Jankos was about to snap at him again, when he looked up, and understood what Perkz meant. When had the fog gotten this dense? And how was it so dark, almost black?

„Guys“, he began, and turned back towards the others. He stopped, when suddenly the temperature around them fell, and it became so cold that he could see his breath in the air. All around them, faint screams started sounding from out of the fog, the miserable sound of people bewailing their own deaths. And then, a giant, heavy hook, encased in green fire, flew out of the fog, straight at Miky’s head.


	11. Hawkshot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Tuesday!
> 
> Don't really have a lot to say about this one - enjoy ^^

The hook flew out of the fog, straight at Miky’s head, but quicker than light, his hands were up, protecting his face. There was an ugly cracking sound when the metal crashed against his wrists, and he cried out in pain. The hook disappeared again, the rattling of its chain echoing through the fog all around them.

 _„It’s not him“_ , someone sent, but Broxah wasn’t worrying about that right now. He jumped next to Miky, pulled him back by the shoulder, and raised his shield around both of them. Not a second too early. The hook slid off his shiny barrier, shattering it, but not able to get through. Broxah’s eyes met those of Jankos and Wunder, who had also jumped towards Miky, but wouldn’t have been able to stop the hook from hitting. They wasted just one second exchanging a look, before nodding at each other, and turning back.

Broxah’s heart stopped, when Tim fell to one knee next to them, but it wasn’t because he was attacked. He pressed a hand on the floor, and concentrated. Suddenly, pillars of light lit up over the heads of dozens of figures that had been hiding in the fog in front of the two teams.

The things looked like ghosts, glowing with dark energy. Their faces had no discernable features anymore, but somehow still spoke of the agony they were feeling. Looking at them directly was chilling to the bone, because they looked unnatural and threatening, and yet there was something eerily human about them.

Their commander, the monster in the very front, had nothing human about it. It was a figure of pure malice, its horned skull haloed by emerald fire, its empty eyes burning into Broxah’s with the hate and hunger of hundreds of years.

In the hand that was not holding its hook was a lantern, shining in a ghostly green, and Broxah’s gut told him there was something very wrong with it. When the monster raised it, Broxah instinctively recoiled, but nothing happened.

„You are neither dead nor dying“, the monster remarked. Its deep, gravel-like voice sounded like multiple beings speaking at the same time, and it seemed to come from all around them. „Why?“

„I mean, you’re pretty fucking ugly, but it’s not that bad“, Miky said with a shaky voice. Broxah looked at him in horror. With both wrists bent in a weird angle and bleeding heavily, he didn’t seem to be in any condition to insult the monster right now.

The monster cocked its head and opened its mouth. Broxah took a second to understand that it was grinning. „Ah, it matters not. More for me to do.“

Broxah shoved Miky to the side, and jumped in the other direction. The hook crashed into the floor between them, ripping open the pavement. The monster hissed a command, and the wraiths behind it started storming forward.

Bwipo pushed past Broxah, planting himself in front of the others

 _„I will cover our retreat“_ , he sent. Jankos stood next to him. They nodded at each other, and readied their weapons in anticipation of the wraiths, just a few meters in front of them.

 _„No!“,_ Hyli protested. _„I can kill it. You just have to distract it!“_

 _„Are you sure?“,_ Broxah asked. „ _We could all die here.“_

 _„I trust you, Hyli. Let’s do it“,_ Rekkles sent. Broxah turned to look at Wunder next to him.

„Fight with us?“, he asked him. Wunder nodded curtly, and Broxah knew that G2 had just had the same discussion as Fnatic.

There was no time for anything else. The ghosts had reached them. The wraiths crashed into the two teams, and Bwipo’s blade took the first three heads clean off. They didn’t bleed at all, instead dissolving into clouds of fog. Hyli’s image flickered, before he disappeared completely, while Rekkles and Tim, and on the other side, Perkz and Wunder started attacking with the space their teammates were creating for them, systematically taking out ghost after ghost. But Broxah shared a look with Caps, and he seemed to instinctively know what it was that they had to do.

They moved in the same second, diving past their teammates into the onslaught of wraiths. The monster wasn’t moving with its disciples to attack them. It just stood there and observed Broxah and Caps fighting their way towards it, turning any ghosts that tried to stop them back into fog. Their backs were kept clear by their teams, who shot every thing that tried to jump them, but what counted was in front of them.

It began slowly swinging its hook around, but Broxah and Caps were on the exact same page. When they had gotten past the last wraiths, and the line of sight towards the monster was clear, it swung the giant hook at them, and they dodged to both sides. Broxah jumped in close, then danced just out of reach of the hook flying towards him. Caps used that distraction to dash towards the monster, and threw a smoke bomb right in its face. It started thrashing and coughing, and, just then, the air behind it flickered, and Hyli became visible, knuckles white against the grip of his blade. He jumped up high into the air, and raised his harpoon above his head, ready to bury it in the monster‘s back. Broxah had seen this countless times before. The blade was stronger than steel or any armor, and, with surgical precision, Hyli managed to always hit a deadly spot.

And now, the blade, angled so it would pierce the monster‘s heart, slid right off. It didn’t even cut through its black robes. Hyli landed, and instinctively tried again, stabbing out in front of him, but he could just as well have been trying to cut through stone. The monster yelled out, and grabbed blindly behind itself. It caught Hyli by the shoulder, and hurled him away like a rag doll. Caps swung his kunai at the monster’s chest, but his smoke bomb had lost its effect. The monster caught his movement, and swatted him away like a fly. He crashed onto the floor next to Hyli, and Broxah jumped to them to kill one of the wraiths already storming at them.

„You think you can kill Thresh with mere mortal weapons? How ignorant you are“, the monster said, and its laugh scraped along Broxah’s spine like a knife. It raised its lantern again, and when the window opened this time, masses of Black Mist started pouring out of it. It swirled around the monster’s feet and then forming into dozens of figures. Broxah realized that he saw wraiths being pulled out of the lantern, and the monster laughed again at the horror on his face.

„Oh, yes“, it murmured. „It’s about to get much worse.“

 _„We really need to run, guys“,_ Broxah sent.

 _„Yep, I agree“_ , Bwipo answered, suddenly next to him, and helping him pull Caps and Hyli to their feet. Broxah was distracted for a second by a flash of blue light on the other side of the plaza, and looked up towards it.

The next thing he knew was that someone shoved him to the side. He stumbled and fell, and heard a scream. As quickly as he could, he jumped back up and turned around.

Bwipo stood where Broxah had been just a second ago. His sword was raised, in a senseless attempt to defend himself, and the tip of the burning green hook was buried in his chest. Broxah could hear nothing but the laugh of the monster and the rattling of the chain when it pulled the hook back. It came loose with a terrible wet noise, and within seconds Bwipo’s whole chest was bright red. He cried out in pain. The monster raised its lantern once more, but before Broxah could move, a blinding white light flew past him and exploded between the monster and them. He tried to look away, but was too slow. For a few seconds, he could see nothing but stars. He heard the sound of a bowstring being released, and then another explosion, before a wave of cold washed over him. When his vision cleared, everything around him had changed.

The monster was encased by a giant block of ice, cracking and smoking. The green light of its lantern shone through dimly, but the rest of the monster could not be seen clearly. The dozens of wraiths had disappeared, as if the bright light had burned away all the Black Mist around it. But, next to him, Bwipo had also disappeared. Broxah rushed over, as if only the touch of the ground on his fingertips, empty and bloodied, could tell him that his eyes were not betraying him. Bwipo was gone.

 _„Where is he?“_ , he sent, desperate. This couldn’t be true, people didn’t just disappear like that! Oh God, there was so much blood on the floor, how was it so much, how...

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

„Come on, we have to go!“ Broxah looked up, dumbfounded, and met the eyes of Alphari. He looked around to see Patrik crouching on the well brim with his icy blue bow in his hands, and the other Origen members talking at his teammates and the G2 members.

„What...“, he began, but Alphari interrupted him.

„We don’t have any time to waste, let’s go!“ Broxah was beginning to fell dizzy. Alphari swirled around the staff in his hand, that Broxah now recognized to be a lamp post, and pulled him to his feet.

„But... What about Bwipo? No!“, Broxah exclaimed. Alphari just helped Caps and Hyli up, and Broxah felt someone else’s hand on his back. He turned around to see Kold.

„He was pulled into the lantern just before we froze Thresh. He’s dead. I’m sorry“, he said, with honest sympathy in his voice. Broxah shook his head, and refused when Kold tried to push him forward.

„No, that can’t...“

„Listen, if you want to die as well, you are welcome to“, Alphari snapped at him. „But the ice is already melting and we have to get out of here before it does. So please...!“

Broxah saw that he was right. Where he had before only seen vague lines through the thick ice, he could now make out the features of the monster’s skull again.

 _„Broxah, he is right“_ , Rekkles sent, and he sounded just as heartbroken as Broxah felt. He felt another hand on his arm, and looked in the eyes of Caps.

„We will find a way to save him“, he said, with more sincerity than he had ever heard from Caps.

„Are we ready? Because it’s time!“, someone behind them shouted, and the next thing he knew, Broxah was engulfed by dark blue light, as Kold, the hand still on his back, channeled his teleport. His surroundings disappeared slowly and the last thing he saw was the ice around the monster breaking.

 

 

„Report?“

„Confirmation. It was Thresh.“

Broxah slowly blinked and tried to orient himself. Behind an open area, marked by a giant blue circle on the floor, where him and the others had landed, was a conference table. He was in a meeting room, with one of the walls made of glass. The whole room was kept white, with dark blue accents, like the circle on the floor, the chairs around the table, or the flower pots distributed around the room. Three people were standing at the table, apparently pulled out of their conversation by the sudden appearance of the teams.

„There were two teams?“, one of them asked, and Broxah recognized Froskurinn. What on earth was she doing in Europe? „And neither of them are the Mad Lions.“

„Yeah. Seems like we were missing some information“, Kold said. Broxah looked at the other two people at the table, and saw Drakos and Deficio. He frowned. Something very weird was going on here. Deficio now put a hand on Froskurinn’s arm.

„Frosk, where are your manners?“, he asked and made a step forward to Fnatic and G2. „Welcome at the Origen headquarters, guys. Please, take a seat.“ He gestured to the conference table behind him. The Origen members followed, and sat at the table, with the exception of Kold, who murmured something to Miky, and then carefully led him out of the room through a door at the side. But none of the other people from Fnatic or G2 made any move to follow the invitation.

„Actually, do you guys need a break first? Something to eat, or drink? I could make some sandwiches“, Drakos suggested with the attempt of a friendly smile.

„I don’t need a fucking sandwich! What the fuck is going on here?“, Wunder finally spoke all of their thoughts. „Why did you randomly turn up back there? Why are we here? Why are you here?“, he added with emphasis, and pointed at Froskurinn.

„Uh, well, let me think. They were back there because we told them to be, you are here because we thought it would be nice to not let you die, and I am here because the world is ending.“ She gave Wunder a sarcastic smile. Her remark made Broxah and Rekkles exchange an attentive look.

„You know about it?“, he asked.

„Know about what?“, Perkz snapped, frustrated.

„About the Harrowing“, Frosk said. A small silence followed, where they all just stared at each other with varying degrees of confusion. Deficio sighed, and ran his hands over his face.

„Can we not do this like normal people? Can’t you just sit down at the table and let us explain everything from the beginning?“ There was another tense moment, before Broxah shrugged, and sat next to Nukeduck. One by one, the others followed, until they were all assembled around the table, Fnatic on one side, G2 on the other. Tim sat down next to Broxah.

„Thank you“, Deficio said, relieved, and the three casters sat down at the head end of the table. „Okay, where do we start? Do any of you not know what the Harrowing is?“

 

 

 


	12. Clairvoyance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Wednesday!   
> I wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who has left Kudos or commented on this story so far - it really means a lot to me to know that there are people who enjoy the stuff I'm writing :3
> 
> Also happy holidays everyone!

 

 

„Jesus fucking Christ, Deficio, I didn’t ask for another one of your useless stories, I asked for an explanation! How did you know where to find us?“, Wunder asked, and leaned forward aggressively. Deficio looked mortally offended, but Drakos put a hand on his shoulder to appease him.

„We didn’t know where to find you, we knew where to find Thresh“, he answered Wunder.

„Which I was about to tell you, but apparently my stories are too useless“, Deficio threw in, still hurt. Frosk let out a small laugh.

„Oh Deficio, don’t be so salty...“

„Can we stop with the bickering? One of us just died“, Rekkles interrupted her. An uncomfortable silence followed. The casters looked at Rekkles, stunned, and Broxah could see the wheels turning in their heads, as they seemed to mentally count them, and how their expression went from confused to distraught when they realised.

„One of you... Oh my god, I am so sorry, we didn’t...“, Drakos began, but Rekkles shook his head.

„Just get to the point, please“, he said. Drakos hesitated a few seconds, but then nodded, and propped himself up on his elbows, before slowly beginning to speak.

„The point was, that, a few weeks ago, I called Frosk and sent her this and this.“ He made a swiping movement across the table, and little screens lit up in its surface, one in front of every person. Broxah shifted in his seat to look at the images it was showing. „On the left are readings from an explosion of energy we noticed, in the space just between the G2 and the Mad Lions territory.“

„The size and type of the explosion were our first indicators for the Harrowing“, Froskurinn explained. „It’s from the creation of a portal, but one that is too big for every other monster, even Baron. And the energy that came through was dark and corrupted in a way that only fits the Black Mist.“

Broxah nodded. Looking at the readings in front of him with the knowledge he had now, it was the only interpretation that made sense. And it also explained how all of these different monsters had appeared at roughly the same time, in the same area.

He turned to look at the other part of the screen in front of him, which was filled with photos of dead bodies. Their heads and torsos were horribly crushed by what looked to have been hooves. The brutality of it gruesomely reminded Broxah of Mordekaiser‘s attacks and he looked to Tim to see if he was okay. If the pictures were unsettling him, he didn’t let it show, just staring stone-faced at Frosk while she explained further.

„The photos are from a police report two days after the explosion, which we were now able to attribute to...“

„Hecarim“, Broxah heard Hyli say. He blushed slightly when everyone turned and stared at him, and hurried to explain. „I... I read about him yesterday. It said that he rides down his enemies, and... crushes them under his hooves. It looks like that’s what happened, kind of, no?“ He looked at the casters, as if he suddenly wasn’t sure if that was true, but Deficio just raised his hand to signal him to wait, and leaned towards him.

„Wait, wait, wait, you read about Hecarim? So that means you knew about the Harrowing?“, he asked, bewildered

„Why else would we ever risk coming to fucking Spain? We knew, it’s just them that didn’t. And that didn’t listen“, Rekkles said, and gestured across the table towards G2. Perkz didn’t react to it, but frowned absentmindedly, and looked like he just realized something very important.

„Actually, we knew, too.“ He seemed almost as surprised that he had said that as the rest of them. Jankos leaned across the table towards him.

„We did?“, he asked, bewildered.

„The scarecrow. It was one of them.“ A look of realization appeared on the faces of the G2 members, so simultaneously that it was almost hilarious.

„You mean...“, Caps began, but didn’t finish the sentence. Perkz nodded.

„I thought there was something weird about it, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. It’s... Fiddlesticks, I think.“ He looked questioningly at Froskurinn, who nodded.

„Fiddlesticks is one of the seven spirits. But... you met him? How did you survive?“

„Uh... well, it fled from us, kinda“, Jankos said.

„What? How? What did you do?“

„Well, we were out... not on a mission, just normally. It attacked Martin and Rasmus and me. It had like hundreds of crows that shattered the roof and it attacked with a scythe. It was kind of sketchy, because...“ He looked at Caps and seemed to consider something for a second, but then shook his head. „Anyway, when Luka showed up and shot at it, it just made, like, a turn, and disappeared“, he ended, and looked like he, too, was confused about the abrupt ending to his story. Deficio, who had cleared the screen in front of him, and started taking notes, looked up.

„With what weapon did you shoot at it?“

„The two guns that shoot light“, Perkz answered.

„Lucian... interesting“, Deficio mumbled, and put his fingertips together. He kept staring at his notes, but nodded at Froskurinn to continue.

„Right. So, uh... you guys met Fiddlesticks. What about you? How do you know about the Harrowing?“, she asked, turning to Fnatic.

„They know because of me“, Tim said quietly from the end of the table. It was the first sound he had made since the conversation started, and, judging from the confused looks on the faces of the casters and Origen, they had just now realized that he was there.

„Uh, listen, I’m really not trying to be rude, but who are you exactly?“, Drakos asked.

„My name is Nemesis.“ Broxah looked at Tim, surprised. Hadn’t he told them that he wouldn’t use his nickname anymore, because everyone who had known it was dead? Why lie to them, and about something like that, too? But if Tim saw his look, he ignored it. „I was with the Mad Lions.“ There was a murmur amongst the Origen and G2 members following that sentence, but Froskurinn motioned for them to shut up.

„You... were. What happened?“, she asked carefully.

Tim told them what he had told Broxah and Rekkles just a few days ago - how the Mad Lions had been surprised by the Black Mist and by Mordekaiser, and how terrifying and brutal and seemingly invincible he had been. He left out the details of what happened to his teammates, but judging from the looks on the caster’s faces, they could imagine it. Deficio exhaled deeply.

„The Mad Lions are dead?“, he asked, as if to confirm.

„All but me“, Tim said, and shrugged. There was a small pause in which that information was digested. Froskurinn was about to ask something else, but Wunder beat her to it.

„I still don’t get it. Like, great, we all agree that the Harrowing is happening. And we’re for what happened to you, like, we really are. But that still doesn’t explain what your fucking deal is. And what you were doing there where Thresh also appeared.“ He crossed his arms and raised his chin in the air challengingly. Deficio sighed and rubbed his temples.

„We sent Origen to where we knew Thresh would turn up to get visual confirmation that he is actually here. And, more importantly, to get the Mad Lions to safety“, he ended with a look towards Tim and fell into an awkward silence.

„And our deal is that we want to stop the Harrowing. We want the Black Mist and the Spirits of Undeath to go back to the Shadow Isles on Runeterra, where they belong, and stop them from taking any more lives“, Froskurinn added matter-of-factly and leaned back in her seat, with a look as if she was daring one of them to question her.

„That sounds reasonable enough“, Broxah said after a short while.

„Yeah. We will need you for that though. All of you.“ There was another short silence where all of them pieced together the exact meaning of her words. Broxah’s eyes fell on Mithy opposite him, who looked at him appraisingly.

„You want to reinstate the League“, he finally said what all of them were thinking. It was all very clear now. Froskurinn and Drakos had chosen Origen as the first building block of their new League, because Deficio was already with them, and they could convince him easier than any of the magicians. They had planned on the Mad Lions being their second piece. Partly because they were in danger, but partly because all of them were new and didn’t know the casters or the reason the original League had failed, and thus would be less reluctant to try again.

But now, sadly for them they had gotten Fnatic and G2, which was probably the most unlucky they could have been if they wanted to convince them to work together. Once again, Deficio seemed to have read his mind.

„That was our plan. Listen, we know it is a lot to ask, especially of you guys, but...“

„We’re in“, Rekkles interrupted him, to the surprise of everyone, Broxah included.

„Really?“, Deficio asked, amazed. Rekkles gave Hyli and Broxah a short look to make sure they were on the same board, before answering.

„We came to Spain only because we wanted to stop the Harrowing. This day has shown us very clearly that we can not do it on our own. So of course we are in.“ It took a few seconds of questioning looks from the casters, and reassuring nods from all three Fnatic members, before Deficio and Drakos, as well as the Origen members breathed out a sigh of relief. Only Frosk gave them nothing more than a tired grin, before immediately turning towards G2.

„What about you guys?“, she asked, and that made all the others get serious again. None of the members of G2 answered. The three others looked towards Perkz, who crossed his arms and stared at the casters stone-faced.

„What the fuck do you expect us to say? That we’ll forgive and forget everything that happened, just because you decided that you needed our help?“

„Perkz, please. This is too important“, Rekkles said. Perkz slowly turned his head towards him.

„Did you just...?“ He let the words hang menacingly in the air, but Rekkles just raised his eyebrows and Broxah knew that he was completely done with Perkz‘ constant animosities.

„Did you not see what happened when we tried to fight Thresh? And he was alone. There’s seven of them. No single team can have any hope of stopping that. We need each other“, he said emphatically. Perkz let out a small disbelieving laugh.

„If you think I’m ever going to trust you again, you’re just delusional.“

„Perkz, listen“, Patrik now chimed in from between the other Origen members. He leaned forward, and looked at Perkz intently. „I know exactly how you feel. No, I do! I lost the others from H2K, didn’t I? But if we can’t look past them... we’re already dead.“ He said it with burning conviction, but Perkz just scoffed contemptuously. He opened his mouth to respond, when Rekkles jumped up.

„For fuck‘s sake, Perkz! Are you really this selfish? Regardless of the fact that I did not kill your teammates – this is so much bigger than us! They already killed the Mad Lions, and Bwipo, and hundreds of normal people. Do all of those lives seriously not outweigh two single ones? Isn’t it our fucking job to save lives?“, he told him off. That at least seemed to register with Perkz, and a small pause occurred. Broxah noticed that both Jankos and Caps looked glass-eyed, which usually happened when someone was using telepathy, and wondered if they were arguing with Perkz. After a few tense seconds, he groaned.

„Fine. Whatever. But don’t think this is forgotten.“

„Never would have“, Rekkles sighed, and sat back down, leaning back in his seat, and looking at the casters expectantly.

„Well, uh“, Froskurinn began. „This is a good start, I guess. If you both agree to work together to solve this, we just need to get you in on the exact plan, and we...“

„And we can do that later“, Drakos interrupted her. „Frosk, they fought, just before they came here. They need rest, and time to talk between themselves. And maybe they’ll take the sandwiches now“, he added with a small smile. Froskurinn frowned.

„Drakos, you know time is of the essence.“

„A few hours won’t hurt anyone. If we try to talk now, we will just argue more. Plus, I feel like we should check on Kold and Miky. See if everything worked with the healing.“

 


	13. Heal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I'm not dead! And I didn't abandon this story! 
> 
> ...yeah, I'm sorry that this chapter took a while longer, but is a very long and important one, and I had to fight a mountain of writer's block to get to it. (maybe reread the last chapter if you forgot what happened? :D)
> 
> So, thank you for your patience and Happy Thursday everyone ^^

 

 

It was in his wrists. Miky could feel it sitting under his skin, a feeling like his magic, but dark and disgusting, undead worms burying themselves in his flesh. He ran his hands over his forearms, and only noticed after a few seconds that the rest of his team was staring at him. They had joined him in what was basically the living room of additional team quarters in the Origen base, after their talk with the other two teams was over. Now they were all sitting on the giant round couch with him.

„Did you even listen to anything I just said?“, Wunder, across from him said, half amused, half annoyed.

„Yeah. You said the world is ending“, Miky answered absently. Perkz next to him shot him a worried look, but Jankos just snorted.

„I mean, that was the essence, yeah, but we also said that we will stop it by working with Origen and Fnatic“, he corrected him, frowning.

„Which is the truth, right?“ Caps looked cautiously to Perkz, who raised his eyebrows.

„What are you looking at me for? I agreed to do it.“

„Yeah, I just wasn’t... sure if you meant it“, Caps said

„I wouldn’t have said something that I didn’t mean, no matter how much you two mentally scream at me“, Perkz said, and nodded towards Caps and Jankos, but there was no bite to his words „They won’t be able to do it without our help.“

„So we’re completely sure about this Harrowing thing now? Positive?“, Wunder asked, and leaned forward.

„I mean, yeah. Between Fiddlesticks and Thresh, and all the things they...“ Miky doubled over, and gasped in surprise, when white, hot pain shot through his wrists. Jankos immediately stopped talking, and Miky felt Perkz‘ hand on his back.

„Miky? What’s wrong?“

The pain was gone as quickly as it had come, and Miky straightened back up. Perkz immediately took his hand and forced him to turn it around, so his palms were facing the ceiling.

„Miky, what the fuck! You said that you were okay!“ He saw the shock and disgust on all of his teammates‘ faces, and couldn’t help but look down too. His heart fell when he saw the thing that looked like an inkblot under his skin, that pulsated with every heartbeat, and he quickly looked away again.

„I am. It’s fine now.“

Perkz made a noise somewhere between snort and angry laugh. „But it’s clearly not! Why would you lie about that?“

„Because I wanted to know what happened with you first.“ Miky’s felt his cheeks start to burn as that sounded ridiculous even to him, but it was the truth. After what felt like hours of not knowing if his teammates were currently trying to murder the other teams or throwing a big party with them, his own situation had seemed less and less urgent.

„Are you kidding me? That could have waited, it...“

„But I didn’t want to wait! Besides, Jonas already went to talk to Deficio, and he will know what to do anyway, so I’ll be fine.“ He tried to avoid the worried looks of the others, but he still caught Caps‘ eye, and he just seemed confused.

„What do you mean, what to do? You just have to heal it, no?“, he asked and stretched out his hand, already glowing in a friendly green.

„No!“, Miky spluttered, and quickly pulled his hands back. „That’s what we did, and it didn’t work. I mean, it healed the injury, but not this... infection“, he explained more calmly. _And it hurt like hell_ , he added in his head, but the others didn’t need to know that, or they would never leave him alone. Perkz already looked at him suspiciously, and Miky tried to change the subject.

„Can we just talk about what we will do now?“

 

 

A few hours later, Miky woke up from a knock on his door. For a few seconds he didn’t recognize the room he was in and he panicked, before everything came back to him. He shook his head, and sat up in his bed.

„Yeah?“, he called, and it was Perkz who opened the door. He looked at Miky hesitantly.

„Did I wake you up?“

Miky shrugged. „It’s okay.“

Perkz closed the door and held up the plate in his hand. „Got you something to eat.“

He sat at the edge of the bed and handed Miky the sandwich. Miky hadn’t realized how hungry he had been until he bit into it.

„Where did you get this from?“, he asked with a full mouth and Perkz had to grin at that.

„Frosk brought it when she got the others to go talk about their plan.“

„She got them? Where did they go?“

„To another extra team quarters that is in the base, where they let Fnatic stay.“

Miky raised his eyebrows. „Really, another one? I wonder what they were planning to do with them.“

Team quarters were something that they had had in the League, when all the teams were staying in one base. They were basically apartments with a living area and five rooms. In the League that had meant two teams per floor.

To Miky, it was weird enough that Origen even had additional team quarters in their base, let alone two of them.

„I mean, I don’t think you have to wonder. It’s pretty obvious, right? The only thing I’m wondering is what way they were going to do it“, Perkz said and Miky had to think back to their argument (God, had it really been yesterday? It felt like weeks ago) about a new League, with them at the top. Was that a conversation Origen had also had?

„You mean if they were going to attack us at some point.“

Perkz shrugged. „You never know.“

Miky frowned and placed the half-eaten sandwich on the nightstand. He wouldn’t have thought of Origen as being a team that would attack other teams - but he wouldn’t have thought of themselves that way either. He sighed and shook his head.

„Why didn’t you go with them?“, he asked, changing the subject.

„Jankos told me that I had argued with Fnatic enough for one day and that I should rather look after you.“ Miky raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything to that, and Perkz laughed.

„I know, he’s not wrong.“ His expression turned serious, and he sat on the bed full, face to face with Miky. „How are you?“

„I’m fine. Better, I mean“, he corrected, when Perkz narrowed his eyes. „It doesn’t hurt at all right now.“

Perkz just looked at him contemplatively for what felt like eternity, before he finally said something.

„Do you remember when you joined G2?“

„Yeah?“, Miky said, and frowned. That was not the direction he had expected the conversation to go in. „I remember not wanting to join, but you wouldn’t stop pestering me about it“, he added jokingly.

„Until we were the only ones at first who could use the yellow and the purple bird-weapons, and you had to accept that we were made to be on the same team“, Perkz said with a smug grin. „But that is not what I meant. The reason that I was pestering you about joining was that you had told me how horrible it was in Misfits. And that you felt like you couldn’t talk to any of them.“

Miky stared at him, dumbfounded. He remembered. It had been months before the fall of the League, when Perkz asked him for help with some weapons that he wanted to learn. Miky had said yes, because he had already trained with a lot of people using this particular type of weapon and he felt like Perkz was a nice guy.

That assessment turned out to be true, and they were soon talking about everything and nothing – including Misfits, and how everything was kind of miserable with them. How he felt like no one liked each other, or talked to each other, or if they did, they didn’t talk to him. And how he felt like, when he told them that he felt uncomfortable, none of them cared, and nothing changed. It had taken weeks of talking his ears off, but at some point Perkz finally convinced him to try to join G2. He had been lucky, the crystal liked him, and Miky had never looked back.

Perkz looked extremely worried. „Miky, I... please don’t ever feel like that with us. You can always tell me when something is wrong. I want you to tell me when something is wrong. Because my team being okay is the most important thing in the world to me“, he said with absolute sincerity.

Miky swallowed and looked down at his hands, before making a decision.

„It was true that it doesn’t hurt right now. But I can still feel the... thing being there. It feels wrong, and horrible, and disgusting. I don’t know why, but... it feels like I’m dying.“ It was such a relief to say it, that he had to take a deep breath to not cry on the spot. He pulled up his shoulders, and shook his head. „I’m sure that Deficio will know what to do.“

Perkz put his own hands over Miky’s shaking ones.

„And if he doesn’t, we will find someone who does. I swear to God, Miky, we will make this right.“

 

 

Rekkles and Nemesis stood side by side on the balcony, and watched the snow settle on the roofs of the city underneath them. It was serene and peaceful, and Rekkles wanted to scream, because it wasn’t supposed to be like that. The world was supposed to pour rain from the skies and flash lightning, it was supposed to rage and cry with them. Instead, it gave them a picture-perfect winter landscape, and Rekkles wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all.

He let out a shaky breath, and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. These thoughts were exactly what he had wanted to avoid, why he had gone out here, instead of joining Broxah and Hyli, his teammates, who were sitting inside and talking right now. He couldn’t mourn yet. He needed to get through all of this first, needed to keep functioning for just a while longer, before he could allow himself to think about what he lost, and properly say goodbye.

„So, what are you going to do now?“ he asked abruptly, needing to get out of his own head immediately. Tim looked at him, surprised.

„What do you mean?“

„I mean... Frosk is gonna come and tell us her plan, and I and the others already agreed to help with it. But you haven’t, right? You still can, of course, we’d be happy if you’d join us, it’s just that you haven’t said anything yet.“

Tim looked over the city, and didn’t answer for a long time. Eventually, he just snorted. „It’s funny. I was so sure what my plan was. That was also the reason for the name.“ He must have noticed Rekkles‘ questioning look, because he moved to explain. „Nemesis is not the name I had with the Mad Lions. It’s a new one I decided on, because it felt... weird to not have one.“

„Why did you choose it?“ Rekkles asked.

“Nemesis is the Greek goddess of retribution. She hunts those who did wrong and brings what they deserve. The symbol of divine justice”, Tim said, his voice low and threatening.

„Divine justice, huh?“, Rekkles murmured, and the sudden urge to protect this boy overcame him, this boy, who knew so much, but also so little, and who was surely going to get himself killed. „So you’re still looking for revenge.“ It wasn’t a question, but Tim sighed and grimaced. Then he shook his head.

„That’s what I’m saying. I was. Until today, I was.“

„What happened?“, Rekkles pressed on. Tim turned away from him again and stared at the still falling snow. He furrowed his brows, and hesitated for a few seconds.

„Do you think... Those ghosts around Thresh today... Do you think they were the souls of the people he killed?“

Rekkles stared at him, dumbfounded. The ghosts‘ pained screams were back in his head, the agony that had been so clearly written on their faces, the clouds of smoke that he had reduced so many of them to.

„That would be horrible“, he whispered.

„I know, it’s... wait, what? Why?“ Tim asked, the excitement on his face slowly dying.

„Can you imagine what a soul would have to go though to look like... that?“ Rekkles said quietly. The memory of how the wraiths out of the lantern had been so clearly monstrous, and yet there had been something distinctly human about them sent shivers down his spine again. He shook his head, didn’t want to go where this path of thinking would lead him, because it was all so horrifying already.

„But don’t you understand? This could mean that we could save them!“, Tim said, caught somewhere between excitement and frustration.

„Oh, Tim, I don’t think...“

„But you don’t know! That’s my point!“, Tim interrupted him and pushed himself away from the balcony’s railing. „You die when your soul leaves this world, right? That’s why you aren’t completely dead when your heart stops to beat, because that’s not what counts. So if their souls are still in this world...“ He stopped, breathing heavily.

„Even if it’s true and the wraiths that we saw are souls... that doesn’t mean that they can be saved“, Rekkles said, and crossed his arms.

„I know that. I don’t want to say that it’s... guaranteed, or even likely, but... there’s a chance. I will just ask Froskurinn and Deficio. Maybe they know already.“

„And if they don’t?“

„Then I will do everything I need to find someone who does. I know that it might be nothing, but now that I had this thought, I can’t ignore it.There could be a chance to get them back. And I can’t move on without knowing. Could you?“

_Bwipo, trapped in a dark, horrifying place. Bwipo, his skin green-black and transparent, his face a constant confused and terrified mask. Bwipo, turned to dust by a random bullet from a faceless magician._

Of course he couldn’t. He shook his head to get rid of the images – this was exactly what he didn’t need, hadn’t he gone out here to _stop_ these thoughts – but that thought remained. He couldn’t risk those images becoming true.

„No, I couldn’t. I’d go with you“, he finally answered.

If Tim was surprised, he didn’t let it show. He just nodded sincerely, but couldn’t hide a small smile.

„Good. Because I’m bad with directions. And talking to strangers.“

„Did you just make a joke?“, Rekkles asked, bewildered.

„Sorry?“

„No, it’s totally fine. I was just surprised, I guess.“ He gave him a smile. „I have another question though. Can I call you something other than Nemesis?“

Tim furrowed his brow in confusion. „What?“

„I could shorten it. Maybe to Nemmy, or something?“

„Please don’t say Nemmy. Just Tim is fine, honestly“, Tim said, shrugging.

„Nice“, Rekkles said with a smile, but before he could add something more, Hyli sent something to him.

„Froskurinn and the others are here“, he repeated the words for Tim. „We should go inside.“ Tim nodded and they left the balcony.

Inside, Broxah and Hyli were sitting at the table in the middle of the room, with Frosk and Deficio, as well as Jankos, Wunder, and Caps. Rekkles noticed the absence of Miky and Perkz, but decided not to comment on it, and just sat down next to his teammates. Frosk nodded to him and Nemesis and pointed at a plate with a bunch of sandwiches on it.

„First things first – Drakos will kill me if I bring back any of these, so, please, help yourselves.“ When, under her stern look, everyone had obediently taken a sandwich, she nodded, and continued.

„I would like to start this by telling you everything we already know about the Harrowing. It’s not a lot, even with the things you have told us today. The first thing is what is causing it – namely seven spirits. You have already met some of them, but there’s also Hecarim, Kalista, Elise, and Karthus. We know that they are spreading the Black Mist. All of them are also actively killing people. To stop the Harrowing, we have to stop the spirits.“

„Well, thank God we’ve got the casters for telling us that. Never would have guessed that one“, Wunder said, and snorted. Frosk shot him an icy look.

„As far as things that we know for sure, that was about it“, Deficio picked it up, ignoring Wunder completely. „We know that we have to stop the spirits, but we don’t know how to. We thought that you couldn’t kill them, but it’s possible that we just hadn’t found the right weapons yet.“ He nodded towards G2, and Rekkles remembered the story about the gun that shot light and Fiddlesticks.

„It seems like that might be our greatest hope right now – finding out what weapons will hurt them – but right now, we simply don’t have enough information to say anything definitive.“

„Well, we have at least one weapon that can hurt them. Shouldn’t we work off of that?“

„I would love to. But there’s too many variables to go off. That it worked against Fiddlesticks could have to do with the fact that it shoots light, or that Fiddlesticks is the weakest of the spirits, or anything that happened in either of their lifetimes. And maybe Fiddle didn’t even flee from it, but something there. To find out the practical way, through trial and error, we simply don’t have enough time.“

„And I don’t think trial and error would be a good idea either way“, Broxah said assertively. „We don’t want anyone else getting killed because we don’t know what we’re doing.“

„Exactly. Frosk and I will have to find out through casting about how to stop the Spirits. The bad news is that this will take some time.“

„Which is really bad news when they’re out there killing people“, Tim said drily.

„True, but it’s unavoidable, sadly. We have to take this time, because if we don’t, more of us are going to die. And we only get so many tries.“

She let that sink in for a few seconds, before continuing to talk.

„And regardless of what we find out about the weapons, they are still seven spirits. And you can’t take them on as three teams. So, what we want you to do is mobilize the other teams to help. And even if they don’t want to help, they still have to be warned. All of you have old teammates or friends in the teams all over Europe, and they might be willing to listen to you.“ She was looking directly at Rekkles when she said that, and instantly, Febiven was back in his mind. Febiven, who floated in the air in front of him and told him that he didn’t believe in the war, and would find a way to get them to work together again.

„There might be a few, yeah“, he said quietly.

„Great“, she said with a small smile. „So, as far as we know, there’s six remaining teams in Europe. We thought that you could go as mixed groups of four, so you don’t seem like a hostile, invading team. We thought...“

„Hold on, hold on“, Jankos said, and leaned forward. „Before we can determine groups, you have to tell us about Miky.“

Rekkles frowned, and noticed a confused look on the faces of his teammates as well.

„What is there to talk about?“

„Well, you see, something didn’t work with healing him. It looks like there is still some dark magic left in him, and we don’t know what it will do“, Jankos said with a grimace.

Froskurinn sighed. „I was going to get to that. Unfortunately, neither Deficio nor I know anything about what is happening to Miky. And we don’t think we’ll have the time to find out, because we have to focus on how to kill the spirits.“

Wunder raised his eyebrows. „So, who can tell us?“

„Well, we don’t know for sure, but the caster that always concerned himself with magical injuries, was...“

„Medic. Right!“, Jankos finished the sentence. „So he will know?“

„We hope so“, Deficio said with a shrug, and looked as unhappy about that response as the rest of them. „Look, I know that it sucks, but Frosk and I don’t have any time to spare to look into that – we have hundreds of years of footage to get through, the whole life of every spirit. We might even stumble upon something, but talking to Medic is going to be the best bet for you guys.“

„But it’s not as bad as it sounds right now“, Frosk quickly said. „Because Drakos told me that Medic is in England right now, and so is Excel, so you can talk to Medic, and then go find them.

That means that there’s five other teams to be found. We wanted to send Kold and Nukeduck to Vitality, Splyce, and Rogue, and then...“

„Actually, Tim and I also have a question first.“ Rekkles hated to interrupt Frosk, but he felt like there wouldn’t come a better time than right now. She looked at him with raised eyebrows – as did everyone else around the table.

„You said that the spirits kill people. But how certain are you about that? I mean“, he quickly moved to explain, „when we saw Thresh today, he was surrounded by these ghosts. If those were people’s souls, they wouldn’t really be dead, right? Do you think that is possible?“ He felt the questioning looks from Broxah and Hyli, but only looked at Froskurinn, whose expression grew sympathetic, once she understood what he was saying.

„You’re asking if you can save Bwipo.“

Rekkles just nodded, and felt a lump in his throat. Froskurinn and Deficio exchanged a look.

„We don’t know“, she said tentatively. „So far, we have only looked at Hecarim, and he definitely kills. It might be different for Thresh, but we don’t know.“

„And you don’t have the time to find out“, Rekkles finished the sentence he already knew was coming. „But, again, there has to be someone else who might know something.“

„That depends on how broad you define ‚might‘“, Deficio said and folded his hands. Rekkles narrowed his eyes.

„What?“

„The only one is Vedius. He was the ‚Harrowing expert‘ back in the League.“

„But we didn’t think that asking him would be helpful or anything“, Wunder said with biting sarcasm. „Great stuff guys.“

„We would of course have loved to ask him, but sadly he refuses to talk to us“, Deficio shot back. „Maybe he just hates Origen and me specifically, or maybe he finally lost it completely – you all know how he was. But even he just hates me and he will talk to you, it’s not guaranteed that he knows anything specific about Thresh.“

Rekkles did indeed remember how Vedius was. On the days he was himself, he was brilliant, but on the others, talking to him was absolutely pointless. Still, what choice did they have?

„It’s still our best shot, right? And if there’s a group going to Medic and Excel anyway...“ He looked to Jankos and saw that he was also quite unexcited at the prospect of an adventure together. But they had agreed to it, and Jankos seemed to have the same thought, because he gave him a smile. Admittedly a quite forced one, but still a smile. Deficio and Frosk still looked unhappy, when Broxah chimed in.

„And even if the chance that he doesn’t know anything, or has one of his off days is very high, the alternative makes it always worth it, right? If he can help, we gain so much.“

Frosk sighed. „Yeah, you have a point. And, of course, I understand why this is so important to you, and I wouldn’t change your minds anyway. So, one group that goes to Vedius and Medic, consisting of Rekkles, Nemesis, Miky, and...“

„Me“, Jankos said assertively. „Luka will kill me, but that is his problem“, he added more quietly, and Rekkles wasn’t sure if he had been meant to hear that.

„And I can go with Kold to Splyce and the others“, Wunder offered.

„I have only played with Soaz before“, Caps said meekly.

„Same for me“, Broxah said. Deficio, who was once more writing everything down, looked at his paper and shrugged. „So you two go to Misfits. Hyli, you want to go with them?“

„Yeah, sure“, Hyli said, nodding.

„Then we just need a squad to take Schalke.“

„Well, Luka knows Trick. So he can go with them to Misfits, and then Schalke?“, Jankos said, and everyone turned to look at Deficio expectantly. He looked at his notepad for a few seconds, before nodding.

„Seems like it would all work out that way.“

That sentence sparked a weird, determined aura around the table, as they all looked around and realized that this was it. They were now committed to this, and each other, and there was no more backing down.

„I have one more question“, Caps said, and broke the atmosphere. „So, we start right now, right? But when and where are we gonna meet back up?“

Frosk weighed her head. „We think we’re going to need three days at least. We don’t have any time to waste, but casting less than that will not get us anywhere. And as to where...“

„It has to be a place everyone can teleport to. So, somewhere you have all been before“ Deficio said. „We will meet at the old League base.“


	14. Pierce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saturday!
> 
> Look at me, delaying updating so much that we're back to posting on the weekends ^^ - enjoy!

 

Miky could still remember the moment they had broken through the blanket of clouds on his first flight. He had been eight and it had been the most magical thing, like he stepped through a portal to an endless, white palace with no roof but the golden rays of the sun. That moment, when you entered a whole new world, had become his favorite part of flying, and he had started to look forward to it every time.

But today, the moment never came. He looked out of the window and saw nothing but grey, as if the pilot had decided that, just today, staying below the clouds would be the better idea. If only it were that simple, and he didn’t know that the weird lack of sunlight up here was linked to the weird lack of sunlight on the Earth’s surface.

Miky sighed, and wished now that he hadn’t gotten Rekkles to swap places with him at the last second, as he wasn’t really enjoying his window seat that much anymore. They were sitting on an early morning flight from Madrid to Cardiff, with Nemesis next to Miky, and Rekkles and Jankos in the seats in the middle row of the plane. Neither of the two looked happy with the new seating arrangement, but Miky wasn’t in the mood to worry about that, as he turned to Nemesis instead.

„You know, you were the last person from my childhood I expected to see again“, he said, half serious, half bewildered. A part of him still couldn’t believe it. What were the chances that, in the midst of the apocalypse, he met the little brother of his childhood best friend, whom he hadn’t seen in almost fifteen years?

Nemesis raised his eyebrows. „Really? I always knew that we would meet again. Because of our magic“, he clarified, when Miky looked confused. He looked a little smug about it, and Miky shook his head.

„But I didn’t know you were magical! How did you know of me?“

„How did I know?“, Nemesis said. „Well, you and my brother tried to smuggle a baby krug into our house. And you didn’t know I could see it, because my brother had complained to our parents that I would never leave you alone, and then I wasn’t allowed to talk to you when you were over.“

Miky laughed, as Nemesis‘ words brought back some of his oldest, half-forgotten memories. „Oh shit, yeah, I remember the krug, actually. We spent days trying to care for it, but released it when it wouldn’t eat anything we gave it and we were afraid that it would die. Good times.“

„For you, maybe“, Nemesis said, and scoffed. „For me it was horrible because my brother never believed me that I could see magic, and I could never talk to anyone about it. I thought I was going insane.“

Miky shrugged, and started playing around with the buckle of his seatbelt. „I mean, he probably just didn’t want to accept it. I think to him it was like our thing, so that’s why he didn’t let you chill with us. What about him now, actually? Is he with a team now, too?“

„No. He stopped caring about magic as soon as you moved away. He’s at the university now. I mean, I think so, I haven’t talked to him in a while“, Nemesis said, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Miky nodded. It was common for magicians to go no-contact with their families – because how would you ever explain living in another country to kill monsters with just four other guys to your concerned parents? Some of them went the nuclear option, others just pretended to be studying or working abroad. And if he stopped caring about magic, it made sense that Nemesis fed the same lies to his brother.

„That sucks. But what can you do, I guess.“

„Yeah. What can you do.“ Nemesis looked so sad that Miky quickly changed the subject.

„But even with you having magic, I still wouldn’t have thought you would be with Fnatic of all teams“, he said with a grin.

„I mean, I’m not with Fnatic yet“, Nemesis said, and shot a look to Rekkles and Jankos, but they were having their own talk, and not listening. „It was so weird actually. When that thing with Mordekaiser...“ He interrupted himself, and looked to Miky, who immediately understood.

„They told me what happened. You don’t have to repeat it.“

Nemesis nodded, and carried on. „What was weird about it was that Fnatic found me, but they didn’t know anything about it. They told me that they heard my voice, and were pulled towards me, like, they teleported automatically. They tried to find out how that was possible, but, well... other stuff got in the way.“

Miky tilted his head to the side, when he had a thought. „Huh. That kinda sounds like what happened to Caps, just in reverse.“

„What?“

„When Caps joined us... he had heard G2’s call for a few days. And when he gave in, he teleported, automatically, straight to our base. Even though he didn’t know where it was.“

„The Fnatic guys said that they didn’t know something like that was possible.“

„I mean, neither did we. But it seems like it is. And like the two things were connected. G2 pulls Caps towards it, and then, a few months later, Fnatic pulls its members towards you.“

„So you’re saying that I should join Fnatic.“

„I would never say such a thing“, Miky said with a grin. „Just that Fnatic might have been saying that.“

Nemesis fell into a pondering silence, and Miky just let him think. The old man in the seat in front of them was starting to snore, and a young mother and her toddler walked carefully past their row towards the bathrooms in the back of the plane. Nemesis only spoke again when they had already long disappeared.

„But even if I joined Fnatic - could we still be friends?“ The question was so unexpected that Miky had to let out a small laugh.

„Of course. Why wouldn’t we?“, he asked, still smiling. Nemesis raised his eyebrows and looked not amused at all.

„You immediately tried to kill us when we met.“

„Yeah, I guess“, Miky said and scratched the back of his head. „That wasn’t really about Fnatic though. It’s not like everyone from G2 hates everyone from Fnatic.“

„It’s just that Perkz hates Rekkles.“

„It’s complicated, alright? He doesn’t just hate him for no reason...“

„No, he just hates him for a stupid reason. Rekkles told me about it. That he had the idea to split up the teams so they could do more stuff simultaneously and when someone fucked up the assignment, people died. And Perkz blamed Rekkles because it was his idea.“ Nemesis raised his chin, and looked at Miky challengingly.

„Is that what he told you? Listen, I’m not saying I agree with Perkz on this, because I’m not, but... that’s not really the truth either.“ Miky took a deep breath. He didn’t feel like it was his place to have this conversation – but on the other hand felt like that might be exactly the reason why he needed to. Nemesis shouldn’t hear this from someone who might twist the truth even further in the other direction. „It’s not just about it being Rekkles‘ idea to split up the teams. He was with them. When they fought that dragon. And he was the only one still alive when reinforcements came. And Perkz thinks that’s... fishy.“

He let that sink in for a few moments. Nemesis slowly turned his head to look at Rekkles, a few seats over, still talking to Jankos, and not aware of what was happening over here. Miky couldn’t see Nemesis expression, but the way he was clawing at his armrests was enough.

„But, as I said, I don’t think Perkz is right. Just because he was the only survivor doesn’t mean that he betrayed them, or some shit. I mean, you were the only survivor,but you didn’t betray your team, right?“

Nemesis turned back. „I guess. It’s just... I don’t get why he would lie to me.“

 

 

Upset hated football stadiums. Especially ones with thousands of cheering fans in them. Especially fans that were drunk and screamed into his ear and made it really hard for him not to punch them. He glared to his side, but since the guy was two heads taller and several sizes bigger than him, he decided that it was not a fight he wanted to take. So, he looked away, and tried to find something to distract him, when his gaze fell onto the stairs, and he paused.

There were three wraiths lining up nearly perfectly on the stairs next to him, each on its own step. He was fairly certain that he could get all three of them at once. It was almost like they were waiting in line to get a ticket to the actual afterlife – or to get smoked by arcane energy from Upset’s gauntlet. Both worked for him.

„ _Remember, guys, if they don’t attack, we don’t either. It’s better if we waste our time than if we start anything bad._ “

Upset could almost feel the stern look that had definitely accompanied Odoamne’s words from across the stadium. He sighed, and slumped back in his seat, the blue crystal that was on a chain around his neck staying lifeless.

Usually, he was level-headed and focused, and didn’t need to be scolded or reminded of their plans. If anything, he was the one reminding his teammates. But this whole situation drove him crazy, made his patience disappear like vapor.

It was the fact that there was a monster in their territory that was killing people, and they were unable to do anything about it. It was the fact that they were now sitting in a stupid football stadium, watching a stupid game that no one cared about, on the off chance that the monster would turn up here. And it was the fact that he wasn’t even allowed to use the time they were wasting here by killing some of the wraiths that were all flocking to the stadium like moths to a lamp.

Hundreds of the translucent, eerily human ghosts stood idly, everywhere between the blue-clad football fans, as if they were waiting for something. Schalke had first noticed them about a week ago, but still didn’t really know where they had come from or what they were. They just knew that they were peaceful until attacked, at which point they went crazy and all started running at the attacker. And that they dissolved into black smoke when they were killed.

When a jolt went through the crowd, he thought for a second that it was the people jumping up because one of the teams had scored a goal, and he turned to look at the field. But they were still playing on normally, and Upset realized that it had been the ghosts that moved – they had all turned in the same direction, and raised their heads. At the same time, a cold wind blew through the stadium.

„ _Something’s happening“_ , Upset sent.

„ _She’s here_ “, was the only answer he received, and he jumped up from his seat. The people from his row stared at him like he was insane, but he couldn’t really care less right now.

„ _Abbe? Where? Who is she?_ “, he asked, already running out of the stadium and into the tunnels that led to the ranks.

„ _At the bathrooms on the east end. She’s... I...“_ He seemed to be scrambling for words.

 _„I’m coming there now._ “ Upset turned right and sprinted down the almost empty hallway, silently cursing the fact that she had decided to appear so far away from him, because Abbedagge didn’t sound like he had anything under control.

„ _I’m on my way too“_ , Odo sent. „ _Just try to keep it from killing people.“_

 _„Guys, I really don’t think I can do this_.“

Two guys cursed at Upset, as they had to jump out of his path and spilled beer over themselves, but he barely registered it. Too panicked hat Abbe’s voice been, and too fed up was Upset with people dying in his territory.

But when he slid around the last corner, he had to stop dead in his tracks. The thing was, they had never actually seen the monster, only the aftermath of its attacks. It left its victims riddled with dozens of holes in their chests, so brutal that Upset had started to imagine a giant dinosaur-like creature with claws and teeth the size of swords.

But instead, she looked like the ghosts that had accompanied her. Human, and yet so far away from it, her flesh translucent, glowing spectral with un-light. 

Black fog curled around her feet, filling almost the whole corridor to Upset, several meters away. On her back were three glowing spears, and when she extended her hand, another one appeared.

„Please... don’t kill me...“

Only now did Upset realize that there was a man lying in front of her, hidden from his view by the mist. It was not Abbe – where was he though?

„We are the Spear of Vengeance. We come for you, deceiver“, she spoke, not with one voice, but hundreds at the same time, a dark, terrible choir.

When the monster raised her spear, Upset channeled his energy, and his crystal flashed blue light, as his gauntlet materialized on his right hand.

„Leave him alone!“, he screamed. He fell to one knee and pulled back the string of a bow his gauntlet had conjured. It released a wave of arcane energy, hot enough to sear his eyebrows. Bright golden, it illuminated the corridor as it flew towards her like lightning, fast and powerful.

But somehow, she was faster. She leapt out of the way of his attack in something between jumping and flying, so quick and effortless that Upset almost couldn’t fathom it. She turned her head towards him slowly, and transfixed him with her gaze.

„All betrayers must die“, she said, and the choir of voices sent shivers down his spine. But then she turned back, completely uninterested in him. And before Upset realized what was happening, she raised her spear once more, and hurled it at the man in front of her, and his terrible scream was mixed with Upset’s own. He jumped up and shot another energy projectile at her, but the giant wave had cost the gauntlet energy, and it didn’t even reach her, vanishing in the air.

She hurled a second, and third spear, before Upset could even take one step more towards her. The man screamed again, and it sounded like he was already drowning in his own blood. She looked down at him for a second, then extended her hand. With a terrible wet noise, the spears, sticking out from the fog, were ripped back, and disappeared.

„Our deed here is done“, the choir said. She turned her head once more to look at Upset, who was now just frozen in place with horror, before the dark fog engulfed her completely, and within a second, she was gone.

He stared in disbelief as the mist slowly dissolved, and he heard the crowd inside the stadium erupt into cheers, felt the floor tremble under their screams and drums. It was almost as if it had not happened at all, just a bad dream. But the man was still there, and his stifled groan ripped Upset out of his trance.

He rushed towards him, and fell to his knees at his side, but then froze again. The holes in his chest were so huge, and they were bleeding so much, and Upset didn’t know what to do. This man was dying, panting and staring at Upset with glassy eyes, and, no, this couldn’t be true, he couldn’t just be watching this person die, helplessly, stupidly.

But then it was over. The man’s lifeless eyes were still fixed onto Upset, and he had to turn his head, and look away. That’s when he saw him. Abbedagge was cowering at the opposite wall, just three meters away from Upset, looking at him in a mix of fear and shame.

„You were right here, the whole time“, Upset said, more so to himself. Of course he was – Abbe had seen her first, he had to have been here, but somehow Upset had forgotten that. „What the fuck, Abbe“, he spluttered, surprising both of them. Abbedagge flinched heavily.

„I’m sorry. I didn’t... She was so terrifying, I...“

„He died because of you“, he said, and he knew it was cruel as soon as the words left his mouth, but everything inside him was in turmoil. He had never seen someone die before. He shook his head, and got up, just when Odo slid around the corner on the other side of where Upset had come from. He came to a halt and looked between Upset and Abbe, and the body and the floor, still completely out of breath.

„Oh no“, he just whispered. Upset sniffled.

„That’s putting it mildly. Come on, we have to get out of here, before they come and think we murdered that guy.“


	15. Barrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Wednesday!
> 
> So, yeah, with exam season and this being a very hard chapter to write, here we are again, a few weeks late :D
> 
> Special thanks to anyone who keeps reading, and especially commenting on this - without you I would probably have quit on this already. (<3)
> 
> Soo, yeah. Enjoy!

„This does not look like we’re right.“

They were standing in front of the most ordinary house in the most ordinary british suburb imaginable. Complete with a white brick facade, a smoking chimney, and a garden gnome next to the rose bushes in the front yard. Not exactly fitting for Vedius and Medic.

„Well, it’s the address Drakos gave us, so it kind of has to be“, Jankos said, frowning, as if he, too, wasn’t convinced. Rekkles looked along the street, at all the other houses that looked exactly like this one. A couple was pushing their child in a stroller further down the street. There was a weird feeling in his chest at the thought of Vedius and Medic, two magicians, living here, between all these normal people, unrecognized and unbothered. Next to him, Miky shook his head, and opened the garden gate.

„I mean, what the fuck did you expect, a witch house? Let’s just ring the doorbell.“

While they were walking through the front yard, Rekkles thought that he wouldn’t have been able to tell that they had just travelled from Spain to Wales – it was all grey skies and clouds either way. Though that was honestly weirder for Spain than for Wales.

The sound of the doorbell pulled him from his thoughts, followed by a suspicious thud and trampling noises. Rekkles raised his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, the wooden door swung wide open, and every thought he might have had was gone.

„Ah! The competitors are here!“

Rekkles needed a few seconds to realize that the overwhelming appearance in the door frame was indeed Vedius – Vedius in a full-body, inflatable bodybuilder costume, that was.

He jumped into a wide stance, and threw his arms open, almost knocking the mirror behind him off the wall.

„Show me where the beach is, boys!“, he called. None of them moved. Vedius ignored them, and started to flex with his plastic arms, grunting weirdly in the process.

„Uh, Vedius...“, Jankos started after a few seconds of this, but fell silent again, too baffled to know what to say. Vedius straightened up and glared at him.

„There is no Vedius here! My name... is Flexius!“, he said dramatically, and flexed his arms once again, as if to prove the point.

The four boys stared at him. „Are... are you for real?“, Jankos asked carefully.

If Vedius heard him, he didn’t let it show. He merely gave him and Miky a disapproving look, and shook his head wildly.

„Boys, what are those weapons? Olaf? Rakan? You can’t flex those! You!“, he called. Then he turned to Rekkles, and his face lit up. He poked him in the chest. „You! Swap your gun with him!“ Another finger poking Nemesis. Then he raised his arms, and screamed into the sky. „The flexing must begin!“

Rekkles didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or cry. Everything about this, from the costume to the voice and absurdities he was babbling was so overdrawn that it was objectively hilarious. But the fact that they had gone all this way for someone, just to find out that he was batshit crazy, quickly killed any sense of amusement in Rekkles.

He only realized how much hope he had put into this visit, when bitter disappointment started to seep through him. They were wasting their time. They had counted on Vediusknowing something, on him making some sense of this whole Harrowing mess.But this guy didn’t have any answers, or help, not for Miky, or Bwipo, or Tim, whose irritated gaze Rekkles now felt on himself. He turned to him, maybe to explain himself, maybe to apologize, when another voice sounded from the hallway.

„Who is it?“ It was Medic who had appeared behind Vedius, but froze in his movement as soon as he saw them. His look scanned them, growing more perplexed with each face. After a few seconds he seemed to pull himself together again, and turned back to Vedius with a stern look on his face.

„Flexius, what did we say about opening the front door?“

Vedius‘ pose suddenly looked a lot less dynamic, and he looked back and forth between Medic and the others, confused.

„But they’re here to learn how to flex?“

Medic raised his eyebrows, and put a hand on Vedius‘ shoulder. „No they’re not, they’re patients of mine. Come on, go back inside.“

Remarkably, Vedius turned around without another word. After the beginning of their conversation, Rekkles would have expected at least a few more nonsensical shouts, paired with weird poses. But the appearance of Medic had made him as meek as a mouse, and he just walked away, disappearing into the house – with a few occasional lunges in between steps.

Medic ran a hand over his face, and turned to them.

„Sorry about that, guys. I thought I had the time to finish up the tea, but Flexius is the quickest of them to jump at the doorbell...“ He paused, and then shook his head, and smiled warmly. „Well, anyway, it’s great to see you, even in this... quite unusual combination! Please, come in.“

He waved them inside, and they followed him down the short hallway, turning left into a cozy little kitchen. In the corner opposite the door was a small fireplace and right next to it, which didn’t seem like the best place, an old fridge with flaking white paint. The walls were filled with wooden shelves, with various spices and cooking ingredients, and for some reason, a plush penguin. Medic gestured for them to sit down on the blue couch at the kitchen table, and went to get the tea kettle of the gas stove. The cushion was soft as a marshmallow, and Rekkles felt like he was pulled into it as soon as he sat down with the others.

„Were you expecting us?“, he asked, and pointed at the four cups neatly lined up on the table in front of them. But it seemed like Medic hadn’t heard him, as he was rustling in one of the kitchen cabinets. He took out a fifth cup for himself, and scurried over to sit on the other side of the table.

„So, boys“, he said, as he poured each of them scalding tea. „What brings you here?“ A small, awkward pause followed, as they were trying to figure out who should answer – and what even to say. Then, Jankos cleared his throat, and sat farther forward on the sofa.

„Well, we were hoping to talk to you. About... uh, about the Harrowing?“ He paused, as if waiting for Medic to answer. But Medic didn’t say anything, just drank a sip of his tea, and looked out of the window next to the fridge.

Jankos looked to the others, confused, but continued talking when they nodded.

„Because, well, we believe it’s happening, and...“

„No, I know it is. Vedius told me“, Medic said and turned back to them. „Ah... It makes sense now.“ He put his hands behind his head, and seemed lost in thought again.

„What does?“, Rekkles asked, frowning. Why was Medic so weird and cryptic? And how did Vedius even know about the Harrowing, especially when he was like... this?

„The way he’s been behaving.“ Medic sighed and shook his head. „I feel like I might have to go farther back to explain this one. So, you guys remember how in the League, Vedius had days where he just didn’t feel like himself? Well, it only got worse since we moved here. To the point where he actually has different personalities. He cycles through them daily, and none of them know of the existence of the others. You met one of them.“

A pause followed, where they stared at him with raised eyebrows, trying to grasp what he was saying. It all made sense, when Rekkles thought about it. Flexius hadn’t recognized them, because he didn’t know them – because he was actually a different person than Vedius. And while this person might actually be insane, Vedius wasn’t.

Medic waited for them to digest all of this information, before continuing to speak.

„What increased together with his off-days was his ability to cast though. Nowadays, he can only do it when he is himself, and he can’t control it. It overcomes him like visions, but then... he can not only see Runeterra, but also the future on our earth.“

„What...?“, Rekkles and Jankos spluttered simultaneously. That was absolutely insane.

„I thought casters couldn’t do that“, Miky said, explaining their bafflement. „You guys always said you couldn’t“, he added, almost offended.

„And that was the truth“, Medic answered calmly. „They can’t. At least, none of them ever could. But for some reason, Vedius has been able to since the fall of the EULCS. On the one day of the week when he is himself, he gets flashes of future events, on earth as well as on Runeterra. Which is why I know about the Harrowing.“

„And why you were expecting us“, Rekkles said and pointed at the cups, feeling a bit like a detective because he had noticed that small detail. Medic smiled.

„I mean, I wasn’t really. Vedius just told me yesterday that he had vaguely seen four people at our house today and that I should make tea. So I did, and, guess what, you showed up.“

Before the others could say anything, Tim sat up, as if he had gotten an electric shock.

„Wait. Yesterday? You’re saying that we missed Vedius, the guy who could tell us everything, by one day?“ He sounded like he thought of all of this as a bad joke, and Rekkles couldn’t help but agree. How unlucky could they be? Medic’s face grew sympathetic.

„Yeah, I know, I’m sorry guys. But the good news is that he shared a lot of what he saw his visions with me. So, if Vedius would have known the answers to the questions you want to ask, the chance is not too bad that I know too“, he said cheerily and opened his arms. „So, what exactly are you here for today?“

„Well, mostly about this“, Miky said, and put his hands on the table, palms facing up. Rekkles couldn’t help but stare at the ink under Miky’s skin, that was moving and pulsating like a living being. It creeped him out. Medic raised his eyebrows in surprise, and gently took Miky’s hands to examine them closer.

„Would you mind telling me how this happened?“

„Well, basically, we were... surprised by Thresh“, Miky said with a side glance to Rekkles. „He hit me with this, like... metal hook. And, obviously, we escaped, and we could heal the physical injury, but this remained. Do you know what this is?“, he asked.

Medic looked up from his hands with furrowed brows, and took a sip of tea before answering.

„I think I do, yes. From what you’re saying, it sounds like Thresh’s attack pierced your magical barrier, and allowed a small amount of corrupted magic entry“, he said gravely.

„Wait, my magical what?“, Miky asked with raised eyebrows. „I didn’t know I had something like that.“

„That’s because none of you ever listened to me“, Medic said, grinning to take the bite out of his words. „A barrier, or protective shield, is something every crystal forms around itself and its members. Think of it as a bubble around a team. It stops basically anything that could be harmful from interacting with its members. Which is also why you can’t be connected to two crystals at once – because each crystal views the magic of different crystals as something harmful.“

„But isn’t the problem with these barriers that they’re super fragile? They break under the slightest stress, right?“, Rekkles asked. He vaguely remembered Peke explaining all of this to him, so many years ago. Medic nodded approvingly.

„That’s true. While they are quick to repair, basically any attack, magical or not, can break them. Honestly, they break all the time, but usually it doesn’t have any consequences, because you’re not surrounded by poisonous mist, so you don’t even notice it breaking and repairing itself.“

„Okay, honestly, what is the point of a shield with the strength of a soap bubble? That’s so fucking useless“, Jankos complained.

„I mean, not really. These magical barriers mean that one needs a direct, purposeful attack to hurt you - they are what protected all of you from the Black Mist around you. Without it, it could take your soul just like that, like it does with regular people.“

Jankos raised a hand, and shook his head in confusion.

„Wait, normal people have their soul taken from being in the Black Mist alone? Then why isn’t everyone in Europe dead already? There’s fog everywhere.“

„But that’s not really Black Mist. Or, at least, such a watered down version that it’s not in itself dangerous. That kind of Black Mist is only closely around the Spirits. And yes, normal people that are close to spirits do always die.

It looks like what happened here, is that Thresh caused a tiny hole in G2’s barrier, around Miky. So small that it could almost immediately repair it, but not before a tiny amount of Black Mist got in.“

„But it’s spreading“, Miky whispered tonelessly. „I... I can feel it, a bit more with every hour.“

„That’s... that’s because Black Mist is essentially corrupted magic. So, what’s happening right now, is that it’s infecting your own magic.“

„And it will at some point jump over to the crystal and infect my teammates as well?“

Medic nodded gingerly.

„So, what can we do about it?“, Jankos asked. „How can we help him?“

„Well, you’re essentially asking how to get rid of the Black Mist once it’s already there, right? How to fight the corruption.“

„Yeah, I guess“, Miky said, and shrugged.

„Well, I’d love to tell you, but I don’t actually know myself, and I don’t think Vedius knows definitively either. I talked to him about it yesterday, but the only way he could explain what he had seen on this topic was with a sort of metaphor, so, bear with me.

He said that, to try and understand how to overcome corrupted magic, you can try to think of it as literal darkness. And all of you, each team individually, are like stars in the night sky - you are sources of light, and you stand against the darkness of the universe. But you are not enough to burn it away. That is something only the sun can do.“

He stopped, as if that was everything he had to say. They stared at him dumbfounded, then at each other, then back at him.

„What the fuck is that supposed to mean?“, Jankos finally asked. Medic rubbed his temples, and rested his arms on the table before answering.

„The way I understood it, you have to think of the Harrowing as nightfall – it’s when the darkness of the universe takes over“, he said, and Rekkles started to understand where he was going with this.

„And we are stars, because we have magic, which can withstand their corrupted magic because of its barriers? So, even when night comes, we still shine, kind of?“

„Exactly. It’s just that that doesn’t help – the surface of the earth stays dark, even when stars are there. The only thing that can brighten up the earth again is the sun, which is also a star, but a more powerful one.“

„But the sun isn’t more powerful than other stars. It’s just closer“, Tim said. Medic shrugged.

„I mean, it’s a metaphor. Those can never fit one hundred percent, right?“

„But what even is the sun? And... none of this is helpful“, Jankos said, frustrated.

„I don’t know what the sun is either. As I said, I also only understood parts of this thing. What I think your main takeaway should be, is that, in principle, your powers can stop the Black Mist. Magic is a burning light, and if it’s bright enough, it can burn away the darkness.“

Rekkles nodded. It was a surprisingly uplifting thought – that, even though they didn’t know exactly how, there was a way for them to win this.

For a while, the only sound to be heard was the crackling of the burning logs in the fireplace, as they were all dwelling upon their own thoughts. Rekkles looked at the steam rising from his polka-dotted tea cup. If Vedius was saying that each team was a star, and the sun was also a star, didn’t that mean that the sun was just the most powerful team among them? Just a few months ago, he would have bet on that meaning him, and Fnatic, but that was before Caps had left them, and they were only four. And, though his gaze fell onto Tim next to him, the thought that _no, you idiot. Three, not four_ hit him. He looked away, and his eyes met Medic’s, who smiled at him sympathetically.

„Vedius also told me what happened to Bwipo“, he said quietly.

„And?“ The question was clear. _Did he tell you that he was killed? Or..._

„And he said that the chain warden, Thresh I mean, is the only one of the Spirits that doesn’t kill his victims, but imprisons them in his lantern.“

The blood was rushing in Rekkles‘ ears, as he let out a shaky breath.

_He’s alive!_

He buried his face in his hands, trying to regain his composure, and thus missed when Tim started speaking, only catching Medic’s answer.

„I’m afraid so. I’m very sorry.“

Rekkles looked up when he understood what they were saying. _He’s the only one that doesn’t kill._ He looked over to Tim, caught somewhere between his own relief, and compassion for him. Tim just nodded, and his expression looked eerily similar to his first days with Fnatic, like a stone mask.

Medic seemed to search for something else to say, before standing up from the table, and getting a basket from one of the kitchen counters. In it were scones, self-made from the looks of them, and he put them on the table with a warm smile. He opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a loud thud from somewhere above them, followed by a scream.

„Bam! You just got flexed on!“

Medic sighed and shook his head. „I’m sorry guys, but that sounds like he’s destroying furniture again, so I kinda have to check on him. Please, don’t go anywhere.“


	16. The Unforgiven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday!
> 
> Soo, turns out I'm not dead after all.  
> It's just that the farther I get into the story, the more complex writing it becomes (also because I'm notorious for not finishing stories, so I'm not as practiced at writing the middle parts as the beginning), and the more time I need.  
> But I don't want to abandon this story, and am determined on writing it to the end, so... yeah!
> 
> This chapter is one of the longest ones yet - enjoy! :)

 

„I don’t buy it“, Maxlore said slowly, with emphasis on every word. He crossed his arms, and glowered at Broxah, who was starting to feel very uncomfortable. Their only plan when coming here, into the heart of Misfits‘ territory, had been being noticed as quickly as possible (Because, as Caps had put it, you couldn’t talk to someone unless they noticed you first). But now, Broxah thought that maybe they should have focused more on the fact that you also couldn’t talk to someone if they didn’t want to listen.

It was Maxlore, Hans Sama, and Febiven, who had appeared out of thin air on the pathway in front of Broxah and the others. They hadn’t gotten very far with explaining their concern, before the axe that was now stuck in the floor in front of Caps‘ feet had made very clear how willing to talk the Misfits were. Broxah had the feeling that, if Hans Sama was going to throw another axe, it might be aimed just a little bit higher. Caps and Hyli, to both of his sides, looked equally concerned – only Perkz didn’t seem to share their worries.

„Why would we lie to you?“, he asked impatiently. Broxah could have sworn that he felt the temperature in the deserted park around them drop several degrees under Maxlore’s icy stare, while Febiven just laughed.

„Yeah, right, how stupid of me...“, he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. „I forgot that you were never the type of person to want more power, and weapons and territory. Always humble and working for the greater good.“ There was a twinkle in Febiven’s eyes with those words, and he didn’t seem to be quite as hostile as his teammates.

„Please. If G2 wanted to take anything from you, we wouldn’t need a fucking distraction“, Perkz said, scoffing. That wiped the smile off Febiven‘s face.

After shooting his teammate a horrified look, Caps turned to the three Misfits members in front of them. „Uh, what he meant to say, is that if we were lying, the four of us would never be here together“, he said with a nervous grin, and raised his hands appeasingly.

„Because the only thing that made us work together was that there is the whole world on the line“, Broxah added, his heart pounding. This whole conversation was so close to slipping out of control, and he wanted to avoid that at all costs.

„What the hell do I care if you guys are best buddies now?“, Maxlore scoffed.

„Because we’re not, that’s what we’re trying to say!“, Broxah pleaded.

„Guys, please. There’s no way you guys haven’t noticed anything of what is going on“, Perkz said, now also striking a more appeasing tone.

„Like what?“, Febiven asked, frowning.

„For example just the dozens of killings happening all over Europe at the moment. You can’t tell me that it isn’t abnormally many.“

„There was also the thing with the amusement park, where the roof of one of the rides, and part of the queue area was destroyed. That was us.“ Caps froze, as he realized how poorly he had just worded that, and he tried to correct. „I mean, it was Fiddlesticks.“The three Misfits exchanged a look.

„And then that whole thing with the sun“, Hyli blurted out.

„The sun“, Maxlore said mockingly, and raised his eyebrows.

„Yes, the sun! When is the last time you saw it?“

„I don’t know, a few weeks ago?“

„That’s not normal!“

„It’s January! I’m English!“ They stared at each other, frustrated, and Broxah got the bad feeling that they were not going to get any further here. But then his gaze fell onto Hans Sama, who looked more contemplative than anything else. He said something in French, and the other Misfits turned to him. While Febiven looked interested, Maxlore crossed his arms, and shook his head. Their eyes turned glossy, and Broxah could tell that they were mentally arguing about something. He held his breath, knowing better than to interrupt them right now. Finally, Maxlore sighed.

„Fine. You’re right, the others should know.“

He turned, and examined each of them again sullenly. „Follow us.“

 

 

 

 

Rekkles sat on the flight of winding stairs in Medic’s and Vedius‘ house, and looked out of the small window next to him. They had a beautiful garden, that was, like the rest of the house, somewhere between enchanted and normal, with lots of tall trees, flowers, and herbs. In the back of the garden was a hen house, where Flexius was right now, feeding a couple of chickens. It looked bizarre, like he was trying to show off his biceps while throwing the corn on the ground, but the chickens didn’t seem to mind.

Sitting here, watching Vedius feed his chickens, Rekkles felt like he could finally breathe again. In just a few days, his life had been turned into nothing but chaos and hardship, everything happening too quickly to process. Now, for the first time since all of this madness started, he felt like he could pause and think. But before he could even try to steer his thoughts anywhere, memories he had tried his hardest to forget rushed back into his mind, and drowned out anything else. Memories of fire and blood, and the worst mistake he had ever made.

Rekkles closed his eyes, and tipped his head back. But he couldn’t help it. Seeing G2 yesterday, and Medic today, pulled everything so close again. It was as if the fall of the League had been just the other day.

He had been so stupidly confident when Quickshot told him that it would be really good if someone could handle this immediately. He should have told him that it was much more important that the people they sent could actually stop the dragon than that they were quick. He should have known that it was stupid to expect them to handle it.

But he hadn’t. He had let the casters‘ talk all throughout 2018 flatter him, talk of how great and strong Fnatic were, and how talented he himself was. And they had all hopelessly overestimated him.

Or maybe they hadn’t – maybe, if he was as great as they all thought he could have prevented WhiteKnight and Wadid attacking the dragon’s wings at the wrong time, which just angered it, instead of pulling it to the ground.

He could have attacked the drake when it moved into his range, instead of freezing in place while it raged among the others, terrified because everything had gone so horribly wrong already. He had survived because his spellshield blocked the dragon’s fire breath, but maybe, if he had been better, the others would have survived too.

And it felt so eerily similar to yesterday. The way Broxah and Hyli told him that they needed to go immediately if they wanted to prevent Mordekaiser killing any more people, and he believed them. And it had ended in disaster, and now one of his people had died. Or that’s what he thought until earlier.

But Medic had said it, Bwipo wasn’t dead yet. He was alive, and Rekkles realized that anything else would have killed him. He had to save him, he just had to, because he couldn’t live with yet another death on his conscience.

Rekkles looked up, as he heard steps coming his way, and Miky appeared on the stairs. He stopped a few steps underneath Rekkles, and leaned on the window sill to look outside. Rekkles waited, but it took a while until Miky shook his head, and sighed.

„Man, I’m actually starting to miss it.“

„What?“, Rekkles said, irritated because that was definitely not the start to the conversation he had been expecting. Miky chuckled, and pointed outside with his chin.

„The sun. It’s only been missing for a few weeks, and I already feel like I’m going crazy. Don’t you?“

„I mean, I’m from Sweden. So I’m kind of used to having little sun for a long time. But I get what you mean“, Rekkles answered hesitantly, because he still wasn’t sure where Miky was going with this, but he just nodded.

„Right.“ They fell silent again. Rekkles noticed how tired Miky looked, and that he was massaging his left wrist while staring out of the window. It suddenly made him very conscious of how absorbed with himself and his team he had been, never even thinking about how this had affected other teams as well.

„How are you? With everything...“, he asked carefully.

„You mean, after Medic told me that I’m dying and there’s not really anything we can do about it?“, Miky asked, and cocked his head. Rekkles just nodded, because he wasn’t sure if Miky was trying to be aggressive or funny. But then he grinned, and Rekkles relaxed a bit.

„Oh, don’t worry, I don’t plan on actually dying from this. I will see the end of this. I will see the sun again.“ He tried to say it with confidence, but Rekkles could still see his slight frown, and tight lips, and his own throat closed up a bit. He was trying to find the right words to give encouragement, when Miky pulled up his shoulders, and looked him straight in the eyes.

„I talked to Nemesis on the flight.“

„Yeah?“, Rekkles asked, confused by the sudden change of topic, and Miky’s mood. But before Miky could say more, they were interrupted by another person’s steps, this time coming from upstairs. It was Medic, who looked considerably dusty, and had two sleeping bags under his arms.

„Oh hey guys! Look what I found“, he said and held them up proudly. „I knew we had those in the attic somewhere.“

„Nice! Jankos will be glad that he doesn’t have to sleep on the carpet just like that“, Miky said with a grin.

„As am I“, Rekkles added. There had been a long discussion between them earlier, as to who got what resting place. At some point they had agreed that Rekkles and Jankos - as the older and uninjured ones of them – had the right to sacrifice themselves, and let the other two sleep on the sofas. But he couldn’t say that he had actually looked forward to it, and the sleeping bag definitely helped that. „Again, thank you so much for everything, Medic“, he said, and he really meant it, but Medic waved it aside.

„Oh, don’t worry about it, I’m happy to help! And besides, it’s nice to have someone around the house again, anyway.“

„You mean, someone other than the seven Vedius‘? And your chickens, of course“, Miky joked.

„Ah, you’ve seen them?“, Medic asked with a smile, and leaned down to look out of the window as well. „The funny thing is, Vedius is actually the one who takes care of them. And it seems to be really therapeutic for him, it gives him something useful to do, and kind of grounds each of his personalities in a way. And Chefius loves to cook the eggs in the morning.“

„How do you even manage all of this?“, Rekkles said, amazed. „You work, take care of Vedius, chickens, and a whole house... It sounds so difficult.“

„Well, I don’t know anyone who has something to do with magic who has an easy life. But it’s not as bad as you make it sound right now. As I said, Vedius takes care of the chickens, and most of his personalities are more reasonable than Flexius is – I would say all of them are. It’s not like he’s a burden, I’m actually really glad that we stuck together even when the League ended. I... I couldn’t really imagine life without him.“ The sincerity of that statement struck Rekkles and Miky, and for a moment, all three of them were silent. They looked out of the window to Flexius, who was still doing yoga in front of the chickens.

„Anyway, should we bring these downstairs?“, Medic finally broke the silence and held up the sleeping bags. „And maybe I can help you make a planabout how you should approach looking for Excel before I leave for my night shift?“

„Sounds good“, Rekkles said, and got up. They went down the stairs, but Rekkles stopped Miky by the shoulder, before he could follow Medic into the living room.

„Miky, wait. What did you want to say about Tim?“, he asked, because something about way the other had said that earlier had made him listen up. Miky seemed to think for a moment, before smiling softly.

„Oh, just...he told me how you guys found him, and it sound similar to how Caps found us, with the crystal pulling you and all that. Maybe there’s something to think about there.“

 

 

 

 

They were still sitting in around the giant table in Misfit’s dining room, when the street lamps outside sprung on. The silence still felt weird in Caps‘ ears, after all of the angry shouting less than half an hour ago, and the slamming of the front door behind Maxlore and Lider that had felt as loud as a thunder crack.

„Well, uh. Sorry for all this, I guess. We didn’t mean to tear your team apart“, Perkz finally broke the uncomfortable silence. Caps looked around, at the faces of the remaining Misfits members, and felt a bit like him and the three others by his side were intruders at a funeral. Gorilla and Soaz were just staring into the distance, clearly still shaken, and Hans Sama was drawing invisible pictures on the table with his fingers and slowly shaking his head.

„I think we were already doing that. You just sped up the process“, he said quietly, and Caps felt like that might have been true. There were a lot of ugly things and accusations that had been thrown around in the argument, and not nearly all of them were directed at Caps and the others with him. Febiven, who sat directly opposite Caps, didn’t look nearly as shaken as the other members of his team.

„I mean, Maxlore is british. Of course he quits the collaboration“, he cackled, and Caps held his breath at the reaction of the others.

„Oh shut up, Febiven. Maxlore was a good teammate, no matter how you felt. As was Adam. And you know that them leaving is bad for more reasons than one“, Soaz spat from where he was leaning on the doorframe. Caps frowned. What was that supposed to mean?

But Febiven just rolled his eyes, and shrugged, not even turning around to look at Soaz, and Caps had the distinct feeling that Maxlore hadn’t been the only source of conflict in this team.

„What exactly is your plan now anyway?“, Febiven now asked, and nodded towards Perkz. „So far you’ve only told us that to stop the Harrowing we need to work together, but not what exactly you want us to do.“

„Yeah, well, it’s the casters‘ plan, right?“, Perkz began. „So, they want us to meet the day after tomorrow in Berlin with all the teams we can gather until then. They’re casting right now to find out what to do, and want to tell us the full plan then.“

„So you don’t even know the plan yourselves?“, Hans Sama asked, frowning.

„Well, we don’t know the exact plan“, Hyli admitted. „But it will basically just be finding a way to kill the seven spirits. So you should definitely pack your best weapons before porting to Berlin.“

„As opposed to otherwise, where we would have packed our crappiest weapons“, Febiven joked, but Perkz was the only one who even just smiled at that. Soaz‘ expression had darkened, but he didn’t say anything. If Febiven noticed how annoyed his team was at his jokes, he didn’t let it show.

„Okay, then tell us about the spirits. What do you know right now?“

„So far, I have seen two of them – Fiddlesticks and Thresh. Fiddlesticks is a scarecrow...“

„Yeah, that name totally sounds really scary“, Febiven interrupted Perkz sarcastically. Perkz just tilted his head, but Soaz sighed loudly, and crossed his arms, clearly unnerved.

„Well, I’m sure this is going to be fascinating, but I sadly have to start cooking now.“

„I can help you“, Caps said, and jumped up. He couldn’t stand another minute of this tension.

„Yeah, me too“, Broxah said, less enthusiastic than Caps, but just as sincere. Perkz frowned at the two of them, but he didn’t say anything, neither aloud nor mentally.

„Sure, if you want to“, Soaz said with a shrug, and so they followed him out of the dining room into the kitchen a little further down the hallway.

He sat them down at a little table in a corner of the room, and handed them peelers and a bowl of potatoes, while he got to work at the stove. For a while, they sat in silence and worked, the only sound from the radio Soaz had turned on.

Caps felt weirdly reminiscent of 2017, when they had often sat exactly like this, in the kitchen in their apartment in the League base. He looked at Broxah, who was peeling his potatoes with great care and diligence, and wondered how sitting next to him could feel so right and so wrong at the same time.

Broxah had been there from the very beginning. They had been on a school trip together, where they witnessed Vitality killing a blue buff, which had led to them joining the League. They had been recognized by the same crystal, and faced their first monster together. He had learned everything about magic together with Broxah, gone through every up and down, and danger with him, and it just felt natural to have him by his side.

But of course, Caps knew that he shouldn’t feel that way.

Because he was with G2 now, and any loyalties he still felt towards his old teammates were just gonna tear him apart. If nothing else, yesterday had proven at least that.

And he didn’t even want those feelings anyway – he loved being in G2, he really did. They all understood him so well, and living and fighting with them had been some of the most fun he had ever had. He wanted to be as loyal and good of a teammate to them as they all were to him, and so having Broxah next to him shouldn’t feel like coming home.

And besides, he knew that he had no right to feel that way anyway, because...

„So...“, Broxah said slowly, with a hesitant smile. „Long time no talk, huh?“

Yeah. Because of that.

The last time they had talked, Caps had asked Broxah if he believed in destiny. That the universe could be telling you to do something, to fulfill a purpose, and it would be right to follow it, even if you weren’t sure that you wanted to. And Broxah, of course, dutiful and responsible Broxah, had said yes. This was what all of them were doing all the time, wasn’t it, when they didn’t talk to their families, and stayed in a foreign country, only with their team, even for Christmas and their birthdays.

And Caps hadn’t had the heart to tell him that it wasn’t a hypothetical question, something he thought about because a character in his favorite show had to deal with it, but rather his own reality. That he felt G2’s call, felt like the universe was telling him to follow it, but didn’t know if he wanted to. That he didn’t want to leave, but also couldn’t stay.

Broxah had given him the confirmation he needed to go through with it, and Caps ended up leaving that night. And he felt so terrible, because Broxah would have deserved a proper goodbye, but he hadn’t been strong enough to face him.

And so, even though Broxah had probably meant it as a simple and innocent conversation starter, his remark made Caps feel incredibly guilty instead.

„Yeah, well, uh, I didn’t have your number, or else I would have called some time“, Caps joked, and immediately cringed at that terrible attempt of humor. „So, how are you?“, he quickly tried to overplay it. Broxah just looked at him curiously, before smiling, and shaking his head.

„Oh, you know, I have this apocalypse-thing going on right now, don’t know if you heard about it. But other than that I’m good. How about you?“, he said, and Caps was infinitely thankful that Broxah let the awkward moment slip, and just made a bad joke himself.

„Yeah, me too.“

„I’m glad to hear that“, Broxah said with a warm smile. They fell silent again, though it was a little more comfortable this time around. The upbeat pop song on the radio ended, and the radio host started speaking in french. Caps didn’t think anything about it, and took the last of the potatoes on his pile, when Soaz stopped what he was doing at the stove, and moved to turn up the volume. He stood there, listening intently, and Caps and Broxah put their peelers down, and looked at him, waiting for a translation.

„What is it? What was he saying?“, Broxah asked, as Soaz turned the volume back down, and slowly walked to the table with a strange look on his face.

„He said that they found another five bodies in a city near Berlin“, he reported with a slightly hoarse voice, and Caps‘ heart sank. „It looks like they all died of heart attacks, but the police say that they think it might have been murders, because it’s so similar to other deaths in the area. And that they suspect that those deaths all over Europe might be connected, and the EU is starting an international investigation.“

„Well, good on them for figuring that out“, Caps said, but Soaz just shot him a look, still with that strange expression on his face.

„It really is happening, huh?“, he said, and Caps understood that he was afraid. He nodded slowly and felt a lump in his throat. Soaz wasn’t supposed to be afraid. He was supposed to laugh, tell Caps that he had faced at least three worse things in his life with magic, and then tell a wild story about some monster he conquered before the League even existed. But he didn’t, and that scared Caps more than the radio report itself.

„Yeah. But we will beat it, together, I’m sure!“, he said with as much optimism as he could muster. Soaz gave him a tired smile, and picked up a peeler and a carrot from his side of the table.

„Sure, Caps“, he said, and started to peel his carrot. „I’m just worried that Misfits will die before this is even over“, he continued after a short pause. Caps and Broxah shared a concerned look.

„Hey, don’t talk like that! None of you will die“, Broxah said.

„No, I don’t mean us, I mean our crystal. With Maxlore, and Lider leaving it’s only a matter of time. And Misfits never was the strongest crystal to begin with“, Soaz explained, and put the peeler back down. Caps frowned, not able to follow Soaz at all.

„What are you even talking about?“, he asked. It was the first time he heard of a crystal dying. But to his surprise it was Broxah that answered.

„Team crystals live off the energy their members give them. And if they have too few members...“ He hesitated, and Soaz finished the sentence.

„They starve. Happens faster the weaker a crystal was beforehand.“

Caps looked from one of them to the other to find out if they were kidding, but they both looked deadly serious. He took a moment to consider this new information, and what it meant for them, and their fight, when he had another thought, and got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He looked at Broxah.

„We never learned this. Why do you know that?“, he asked, his dread mounting at Broxah’s reluctant face.

But there really only was one reason why he would know, and of course this was Caps‘ fault. And he had thought that he couldn’t feel any worse about it, but that turned out to be horribly wrong, as Broxah sighed, and finally answered.

„I know, because it’s happening to Fnatic.“


	17. Neurotoxin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Sunday!  
> So, here I am, almost punctual, and with the longest chapter to date.   
> It is at times a bit claustrophobic, as well as graphic, so if you're sensitive to those things, caution is advised.  
> But yeah - enjoy! :)

 

„Where is everyone?“, Jankos asked, and looked around. No matter where they came trough, the streets of the small English town were completely deserted, even in the middle of the day.

„I don’t like this“, Miky said, and Jankos silently agreed. He caught himself already wishing to be back at Medic’s and Vedius‘ house, not even half an hour into their mission to find Excel. Which was especially unbelievable, because the personality Vedius had assumed today, Chefius, was even more annoying than Flexius. He insisted on cooking each of them a proper English breakfast, and wouldn’t leave them alone until they ate all of it – including the Black pudding, that Jankos really didn’t want to know the ingredients of.

Medic on the other hand, had been nothing but wonderful. He was still at the hospital by the time they left in the morning, but had helped them figure out a spot where they could safely teleport to the evening before.

There was a small risk, teleporting somewhere they had never been before, of landing on a crowded street, or in a wall, but they all preferred that over taking another flight, and wasting valuable time and nerves. It had taken a lot of time and discussion, before they found an arrival point to agree on, but in the end they were all happy with the choice.

And with their arrival in the garden of the local library, their only remaining worry turned out to also be baseless, because there was no one around that could see them materialise out of thin air, and freak out. In the whole town, they hadn’t met a single soul.

„Well, it’s only two more streets away“, he said, looking at the sensor on his wrist, where he could see the energy signature of the Excel crystal pulsating.

The others just nodded, and they kept on silently walking through the ghost town. Miky was massaging his left wrist, and grimacing in pain, but stopped, as soon as he noticed Jankos‘ look. He forced a smile that couldn’t even have fooled Jankos if he was blind. And while Jankos was looking for the right words to tell Miky that it was okay, and it would get better, they turned around the corner, and his mind was pulled back to the mission at hand.

He double checked his sensor, and the Excel crystal was indeed in the first house on the street, right in front of them. He frowned. What was it with these bases they were traveling to being hidden in such utterly unremarkable houses? The G2 base at least had some style. It had been built as one of the first outposts of the League, and thus screamed magic, covered with structures out of metal and crystals, half of which even Jankos didn’t know the purpose of. But the Excel base was just a normal house.

„Déjà vu“, Miky mumbled, as they were walking up to the front door, and it did feel eerily similar to yesterday, and walking up to Medic’s and Vedius‘ house. Only this time, when they rung the doorbell, nothing happened. They waited a few moments, and tried again, but the house remained silent and dark. Nemesis leaned over, and peeked into the window next to the door, but just shrugged, and shook his head.

„Maybe they’re out on a mission?“, Miky said.

„Or they went out to eat, or something“, Rekkles added.

Jankos shrugged, and looked around to see if there was anything else on the street that was noticeable, when he met a pair of eyes. He blinked, confused, because there was still no one out on the street. But then he spotted an old woman glimpsing at him out of her house on the other side of the street. When she noticed that he was looking at her, she pushed the drapes from her window fully, and opened it.

„You are looking for the boys that lived there, eh?“, she called to him. Jankos nodded slowly, and exchanged a look with the others, before stepping into the street.

„Yeah. Sorry, could you tell us...“

„The police think they might have been kidnapped“, she interrupted him, apparently eager to have someone to tell this to. Jankos came to a stop at her garden fence.

„Do they?“ That didn’t seem very plausible. He exchanged a quizzical look with Miky, who shrugged.

The woman nodded, and clicked her tongue. „Bloody idiots, all of them“, she spat.

„What do you mean?“, Rekkles asked, who had now stepped to the fence with him.

„They weren’t kidnapped. But why would they listen to me, eh?“, she asked, and snorted. Jankos noticed a stray pink hair roller in her hair.

„Well, what do you think happened?“, he asked. She hesitated, and looked at him suspiciously.

„You wouldn’t believe it.“

„You’d be surprised“, he said with a small grin. She looked at him through narrow eyes, and seemed to evaluate if they would call her crazy. Jankos tried to look as trustworthy as possible.

„They went to kill the monster that lives in the Maw, the cave in the mountains. But it killed them instead, just like it has killed all the others“, she said.

„The monster“, Jankos repeated.

„The monster. The monster in the mountains“, she said, and lifted her chin, daring them to ridicule her. But Jankos didn’t feel like making jokes. He turned around and looked to the mountains she had nodded towards, towering over the village.

„I told them that they should stay away from it, but who cares about the warnings of an old woman? They said I shouldn’t worry, that there’s no such thing as monsters. Pha!“, she spat, now starting to get all worked up in her story. She leaned a bit out of the window, and Jankos almost automatically leaned over the fence to listen. „Then I told them that they should at least go all together, but again, who would listen to old Martha?“

„They didn’t go as five?“, Rekkles asked, and Jankos could see his own horror mirrored in his face.

„Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. The polite one, and the shy swedish one went first, and when they weren’t back after a few days, the others went to look for them.“

„Guys, I know this sounds terrible, but who knows how much of it is true“, Miky said quietly, so the old woman couldn’t hear him. „Just because she thinks there’s a monster in the mountains doesn’t mean there actually is a real one.“

„Or that it actually killed all of them“, Rekkles added.

„We’ll have to look either way“, Jankos said, and turned around to get the others‘ affirmation. They nodded, and though Jankos could have imagined more fun things than exploring a cave named Maw to find, possibly, a monster, the matter was settled. He turned back to the woman, who had been craning her neck to find out what they were talking about.

„Where did you know the boys from?“, she asked.

„Uh, work“, Jankos answered. The woman raised her eyebrows.

„Oh, I didn’t know that they even worked at all“, she said with slight disapproval, and Jankos could just imagine the old woman staring from her window, muttering about the youth these days.

„Yeah, well, what we do can be hard to miss“, Jankos said, and had to grin at that understatement – what they did wasn’t hard to miss, it was literally invisible. „Anyway, thank you so much for telling us all this. We won’t bother you any longer now. Have a nice day!“

„You’re going to go there too, aren’t you“, she asked, when they were already starting to leave. He looked at her, and for a moment considered lying, but then just shrugged.

„Yes, we are.“ She looked at him with deep disappointment, and shook her head.

„Well, when the monster eats you, I hope you remember you were warned“, she said, and slammed her window shut.

 

 

 

Somewhere on their way up the mountain it had started to rain, thick, cold drops, paired with piercing wind. The heavy rain turned the path they were walking on into a muddy, slippery mess, and Jankos was starting to feel absolutely miserable. He hadn’t exactly felt like climbing a mountain anyway, and this rain was only making it worse. The only good thing was that apparently the Maw was the biggest tourist attraction of the area. Why someone would choose to explore a cave on their holiday was beyond Jankos, but at least that meant that the way up was relatively flat and in good condition.

Their walk was mostly silent, everyone caught up in their own thoughts, but, in the small glimpses Jankos caught of them, none of the others seemed too happy either.

Nemesis looked like he was trying to solve a complicated mathematical equation, deeply focused, and slightly annoyed. Rekkles had a brooding, sorrowful air around him, and Miky...

Well, Miky smiled, and made a snappy remark every time he noticed Jankos looking at him. But every time he didn’t notice, Jankos caught a glimpse of the pain that was written on his face, how he was constantly massaging his wrists, and worriedly frowning. And it broke Jankos‘ heart, because he didn’t know what to do about it.

Talking about feelings, encouraging each other, those things had never been his strong suit. It had always been something the other G2 members did, and he was there to make a stupid joke and lighten the mood after they were done.

On the other hand, Jankos thought as their pathway turned into an open plain, this was not probably the moment to figure out how to make Miky feel better anyway. The mouth of a cave gaped in the side of the mountain in front of them. There was a gate in front of it, and Jankos spotted a weathered sign on the left.

„The oldest record of the Maw dates from the year 1605. Even then it was assumed that the river flowing through it... okay, so that’s useless“, he decided after reading the first few sentences. He turned to the others, who had also stepped closer to the sign.

„The Maw consists of multiple caves, interconnected through a system of tunnels, altogether spanning over seventeen miles, though part of it is no longer accessible, due to structural damage“, Nemesis read a passage further down. „How long is that in kilometers?“

„Oh, you know“, Jankos said. „Also pretty long.“

Rekkles frowned, and nodded to the booth on the other side of the entrance.

„There’s no one there.“

„Well, that’s not really surprising, is it?“, Miky asked. Rekkles shook his head.

„Not surprising, no. But still worrying.“ He was right. Just like in the town, there was not a single soul anywhere. Maybe they all read the weather report and stayed away, Jankos thought, but in the end he knew better. Something weird was going on, and he was more and more getting the feeling that they wouldn’t just find Excel.

„I think it just means that we don’t have to pay admission“, he said with a grin anyway, because worrying like this was of no use. They couldn’t turn back now. Nemesis narrowed his eyes, but Jankos couldn’t tell if it was at him, or just due to the rain.

„Can’t you see if they’re actually here?“, he asked, and nodded towards Jankos‘ wrist. Jankos nodded, and activated the crystal there. It was an artifact the casters had developed, that could detect magical activity, like the maps they kept in their bases, just portable. A mini-map, if you will.

„Well, there’s at least some weapons in there“, he said, as he tried to interpret the fuzzy points of light. „And I can’t see magicians themselves anyway.“

„And, do you see a monster?“, Miky asked, half-joking, half-worried. Jankos shook his head, and looked back up.

„Let’s just go already“, he said, and unceremoniously climbed over the barrier. The others hesitated, but only shortly, before following him one by one.

The tunnel they were standing in now was scarcely lit by a neon tube running under the ceiling, and barely wide enough that two people could comfortably walk next to each other. It went straight ahead for a while, before taking a right turn, and they walked for minutes before they finally came to a junction.

Despite how determined to enter he had been, Jankos felt his confidence waver the longer they were walking, as the sound of rain slowly faded behind them, replaced only by the buzzing of the lights, and their footsteps echoing on the ground. It felt like the growing weight of the mountain above their heads was crushing down on him, making it harder to breathe with each second, and Jankos felt himself starting to panic.

„Why is it so warm in here?“, Nemesis asked, and interrupted his flow of thoughts. „Aren’t caves supposed to be cold?“ And now Jankos felt it too, how the air was stiflingly warm and humid, and a metallic note had crept into the smell of wet stone around them.

They had arrived at the junction they had seen in the distance, where their tunnel split in two. On the right, the light ran further under the ceiling, and Jankos could see that it led into a wider room, where a bunch of exhibits stood on black pedestals.

The left tunnel lay in darkness, and was half-heartedly shut off with a single line of barrier tape.

„That must be the part with the structural damage“, Nemesis mumbled. An uneasy feeling crept over Jankos, which was confirmed when he looked at his wrist.

„They’re in there“, he said. While his map didn’t show any tunnels, the energy signatures were flashing distinctly left of were they were.

„They truly are lawless people“, Miky said, and plucked at the barrier tape. „Does anyone have a flash light?“ He looked at the others, who all returned his look sheepishly. They had all been given an „expedition backpack“ by Origen, filled with provisions, water, and a medical aid kit, but they didn’t contain any flashlights.

„Not sure what I expected.“ He closed his eyes, and a green light from the crystal on his necklace shone out from under his shirt, as a glowing golden cloak materialised around his shoulders. It draped itself over his backpack, and cast a faint light ahead.

„Well, it’s enough to see a few meters“, Miky said with a shrug.

„It’ll have to do“, Jankos said, determined to not give himself enough time to panic again. He held down the tape, and nodded at the others to climb over it, who wordlessly did it. Nemesis‘ face betrayed nothing when he went past him, but in Rekkles‘, Jankos saw his own fears mirrored.

Now, Miky was walking at the front, and his light barely reached past Jankos. He could have sworn that it was getting warmer with every meter they traveled, and, after a few minutes, he decided to activate his weapon. The worn leather of the two axe handles soothed his nerves more than anything else could. The smell also got stronger, and now there were rotten undertones in it. A few times, Jankos saw a rat scurry past them, though in the scarce light it looked like they had just a few too many legs.

„Hold on“, Miky said, after what felt like an eternity. Jankos saw that they had reached a wider part of the cave, where the light of Miky’s coat lost itself in the darkness before it could reach the walls. They stopped, and as the others stepped to the side, Jankos could see why.

He felt cold dread trickle through his veins like ice.

„This is not good, is it?“, Nemesis asked, after taking a look at the others‘ faces. Jankos slowly shook his head.

There was a rule for magicians, which was so obvious that most of them just rolled their eyes when they first got told. Never leave your base without a weapon. Caps had not followed the rule, and immediately felt the consequences. The more important part of that rule though, was that you never leave your weapons anywhere except your base. Because then, neither you nor your weapon are safe.

But here they were, in front of them five weapons neatly laid out on the floor, exactly the ones Jankos had been seeing on his map. Jankos looked around, but there was only the empty tunnel behind them, and the looming darkness in front of them.

„You think they would leave them behind like that voluntarily?“, Rekkles asked doubtfully. Jankos shook his head vehemently, but couldn’t finish his thought, as another voice popped into his head, and scared him to death.

 _„Jankos?“_ The other three stared at him, as he had jumped at the surprise of Perkz‘ contacting, and he scrambled to find answers for both of them.

 _„Jesus Christ, you almost gave me a heart attack“_ , he sent back, and then put on his best sheepish face for the others with him.

„Uh, it’s nothing guys, I just thought I saw something, and scared myself.“ That earned him nothing but raised eyebrows, but at least they all seemed to determine that this was not the moment to question each other. Miky’s gaze lingered on him a little longer than the others‘, which made Jankos realize that Perkz had only spoken to him directly.

 _„Sorry. I wanted to ask how it went. Did you find them?“_ , Perkz sent, and Jankos could feel a wave of immense worry hit him with that sentence. But Perkz being worried about his teammates – and not trusting them to handle themselves – was something Jankos couldn’t think about right now.

 _„Luka, you really didn’t pick the best moment“_ , he sent, as Nemesis knelt next to the weapons.

 _„What? Wait, what is going on? Why are you so afraid?“_ , Perkz sent, and Jankos bit on his tongue, as he realized that he had of course also sent his feelings with his sentence, which worried Perkz even more.

 _„Listen, I...“_ , he started, but was cut off, as another unfamiliar voice said something.

„You boys must be looking for Marc and the others.“ He spun around to his right, where a slender figure emerged from the darkness, and all thoughts were wiped from his mind when he saw her. For a split second he had the instinct to scream in horror, and run away, but then he realized how eerily beautiful she was, and running away was the last thing he wanted to do.

She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen, a perfect, marble-like face framed by hair the exact same shade of red as the girl from his home-town he had fancied as a little boy. She smiled at him for a few seconds, her hands holding together a cloak draped over her figure, before he managed to remember that she had asked him something.

„Uh, yeah, we are“, he answered slowly. Her smile grew wider, and for a moment Jankos thought he saw canines that were much too long.

„Follow me then“, she said, and turned around to disappear back into the darkness. Instinctively, Jankos stepped after her, and only a small part of him noted that he was moving away from the light of Miky’s cloak, because he could still see the crimson silk of hers in front of him. He vaguely took notice of the footsteps behind him, that meant that the others were following him.

She led them along another tunnel. After a few meters, the ground sloped down. The smell of rot and decay grew ever stronger, but Jankos didn’t care. A few times, he got a faint feeling like someone was talking to him, like it was from another room, and he couldn’t quite hear it. But each time he got out of step because of it, she turned around to smile at him, and the voice faded.

They turned around a corner, after which the tunnel opened into a bigger cave. Jankos noticed that the walls were covered in something white and shimmery, which reflected the scarce light, and made it a little easier to see. A small part of him stirred that wondered what the hell that was, but most of him didn't care.

 _„Jankos, please tell me what is going on“_ , he heard Perkz say just then, and for a moment it was like he was waking up from a bad dream. But then she spoke, and her smoky tone lulled him back in.

„He’s right there. Looks like he’s sleeping.“

 _„Who is?“_ , he whispered, and for a second he wasn’t sure if he had said it aloud or sent it. But then she laughed, and the divine sound drew a smile from his lips too.

„Your friend Marc of course.“ He followed her outstretched hand, and spotted a slumped down figure on the wall on the other side of the cave.

„Go on then“, she said when the four of them stood next to each other, and her dark eyes bored hypnotically into his. „Go talk to him.“

They obeyed, and slowly walked past her towards Caedrel. With every step, Jankos felt a reluctance growing inside of him, but still his feet carried him further.

 _„Jankos, you have to wake up, now!“_ , Perkz roared inside of his head, and a wave of anger and fear washed over him, flushing away the veils of deceit woven around him. He felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head, and he stopped, gasping for air. He looked ahead with clear eyes for the first time, and suffocating fear seeped into his stomach like acid.

Caedrel wasn’t sleeping. He looked like he was long dead, and while Jankos‘ eyes were on him, a single spider crawled out of his mouth.

Those were cobwebs on the walls, he realized now, silken strand upon silken strand in a giant spider’s web. They had walked right into the monster’s trap, meticulously laid out for them. For some reason Jankos‘ mind jumped back to Martha, and how she was going to shake her head disapprovingly and tell the story of their tragic deaths to anyone who would hear it.

Behind him there was a crackling and shifting sound, and his stomach turned. He looked around carefully, his mind focusing on a single thought. Out.

And to their right, a good ten meters away from them, was a hole in the wall. Another tunnel, only scarcely covered by cobweb.

His heart was fluttering in his chest like a bird in a cage, as he tried to think. But time was running away from him. They were getting ever closer to the corpse from which more and more spiders crawled, from his mouth, his ears, and under his eyelids.

And then Jankos‘ breath hitched, as he felt something hanging from the ceiling, right above him.

In a split second, he let his axes disappear, and jumped to the side, pushing Nemesis out of the way with him. Something sharp and slender crashed into the ground, missing him by mere centimeters.

„Look out!“, he cried, and pulled Miky and Rekkles away from the corpse and the enormous spider that now dropped from the ceiling. Its grotesque mass shifted on eight clawed legs, its head covered in glistening black eyes and foaming tongs.

Its sickening movement let the last of the dark spell fall off Jankos, and he heard the others gasp in horror in its face.

„Tunnel. Behind us“, Jankos called, and was incredibly thankful that they immediately understood and started to move back. He jumped back, as the spider lunged at him, and it let out a terrible screech. The corpse behind it exploded, thousands upon thousands of writhing spiders pouring out of it. The trembling mass sloshed towards them, and somehow Jankos knew that if it reached them, it would devour them from the inside out, like it had Caedrel.

He turned around, and started running towards the others. Miky and Nemesis were already at the tunnel, cutting through the silken strands covering it with a golden sword in Nemesis‘ hand. Rekkles had his cannon in his hands, and waited for Jankos to run past, before firing a deafening shot at the spider. A look over his shoulder told Jankos that the projectile had thrown her against the opposite cave wall, but gone right over the mass of small spiders, which were scurrying ever closer.

„Come on!“, Miky called to him, and pushed him into the tunnel, Nemesis right after him. Jankos‘ axes automatically appeared in his hands again, and he felt power surge through his veins, making his skin glow.

When he looked back, the swelling mass of spiders poured into the tunnel right behind them.

They ran, and as the tunnel led even further downwards, Jankos couldn’t see further than his next step. His blood was rushing in his ears, and he heard the rustling of millions of bustling legs on the stone ground. The tunnel took a sharp turn, and something in the air changed. But before Jankos had time to process it, he stepped on nothing.

It was a short fall, before he landed on solid ground again, accompanied by a splash. He looked down, and realized that it was water. The river.

It sprung from high up in the wall left of them, so Jankos turned right with the others close on his heels, losing no more time than a few seconds.

But they had to stop after only a few meters, when the river toppled into a gaping abyss, deeper than light or sound reached. He looked around to see that there was nowhere to go. They were trapped.

He turned his back to the waterfall to see the tunnel they had come from covered in teeming spider bodies. Now, the first of them poured out of it and swarmed towards them through the water.

Jankos‘ stomach turned when he saw the enormous spider, recovered from Rekkles‘ shot, push itself out of the tunnel, and land in the river, making the whole ground tremble with its impact. A wave, created by the impact of the monster, flushed around their ankles, and an idea hit Jankos, like a jolt of electricity.

He turned to his left, where Rekkles stood.

„Do you trust me?“

Rekkles stared at him with deadly terror his eyes, but only hesitated for one second.

„Barely“, he said through gritted teeth, and that was enough for Jankos.

„Grab my arm“, he said. „You too, Miky. And connect Nemesis too.“

The spider hissed, and started pushing its grotesque body forward. Jankos swallowed, as he felt two hands on his shoulders, because he wasn’t sure if this would work. But then, he thought as he stared at the clicking tongs of the spider, he would rather get grilled than eaten.

He closed his eyes, and concentrated on a point beneath his ribs, where his magic sat. The crystal on his necklace flared up, together with the handles of his axes, and Jankos clenched his jaw as he tried to hold the tension. The static tingled in his nose, and when he opened his eyes, his field of vision was white hot with crackling electricity. And then he let go.

A bolt of lightning shot from the cave ceiling, and crashed into the river bed between the spider and the magicians. Jankos felt like time was slowing down, as he watched the charge grow outward like a net of silver threads. It grew, over the water, towards the spiders, and towards them.

But while it washed over Jankos and the others like a harmless wave, it turned the writhing, black blanket over the river turned into a crackling silver one, and every single spider that was seized began to twitch terribly. The spider queen herself was shuddering so violently that it sent tremors through the ground, her body shining brighter than a beacon for just a heartbeat. She let out a horrible screech, and the piercing smell of ozone paired with burning flesh hit Jankos, making him feel like he had to throw up.

No more than a second later, it was over. The last of the electricity fizzled out, and all the spiders lay on their backs, dead. But before any of them could even say anything, the ground beneath them trembled again.

Jankos' look shot over to the spider, but she was not moving.

„Oh“, he said, as he realized. And then the crack in the ground he had created with his lightning bolt gave in, and the cliff they were standing on plunged into the depths.


End file.
